VANCOUVER, Nov. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Focus Ventures Ltd. (TSXV: FCV) is
pleased to announce that field work is underway at its Santa Cruz
Project located in the State of Durango, Mexico. The project covers
13,350 hectares of mining claims over a system of high-grade epithermal
silver veins and breccias that occur within a corridor 9km long and 2km
wide.
This first phase exploration field program includes trenching, rock chip
sampling, mapping and clay alteration studies within the known
mineralized trend, in addition to systematic soil sampling to define
extensions to the trend to the east, south and north. The work has
already identified several new areas of alteration. The information
from this first phase program will be used to design a Stage 2 drill
program planned for early 2012.
The surface mineralization at Santa Cruz is typically silver rich and
hosted by breccias, indicating a high level in the epithermal system.
Several of the structures were mined historically for high grade
silver, copper and gold. For example the San Pablo - La Fragua - Orozco
trend which can be traced for over 3km along strike, with widths of
individual zones ranging up to 30m on surface. Underground sampling by
Focus at the newly discovered El Padre vein located some 2.2km further
east returned grades from trace to 1,440 g/t Ag and 1 g/t Au over 0.9m
within broad zones of epithermal breccias up to 8m wide.
Background
The Santa Cruz project lies within the Silver Lake Trend, in the western
flank of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Province, a polymetallic
belt that hosts several operating and past producing gold and silver
mines.
Mineralization consists of veins and breccias extending over a strike
length of at least 9km, historically termed the West, Central and
Eastern Districts. Recently discovered high grade silver veins have
highlighted the potential in the Eastern District which will be the
main focus of the initial work program.