The Santa Elena mine project gold and silver deposits form as prominent east–west-trending veins and associated breccias in sub-aerial felsic volcanic rocks. The Santa Elena Main Vein is delineated by drilling along a 1,950 m strike length and 750 m down dip.
Silver and gold mineralization at the Santa Elena mine is hosted in quartz veins and stockworks displaying typical epithermal textures, including banded quartz, vuggy quartz, and brown–black bladed calcite (pseudomorph to quartz) with many of these textures intermixed with hydrothermal breccia.
Other gangue minerals include calcite, adularia, chlorite, and fluorite. Rhodonite has been noted at approximately 530 m vertical depth. Bonanza ore shoots appear to be locally present but have not been delineated in detail. A trend of higher grades and thicker veining is apparent with a plunge of approximately 25° to the east. Up to 200 m of a pyrite and calcite matrix breccia in the hanging wall andesite proximal to the Main Vein has been intersected.
Sulphide abundance is generally low within the veins but can be as much as 5–30%. The sulphides are dominantly pyrite and pyrrhotite with minor galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite. Gold occurs typically as native gold, electrum, and silver occurs as electrum, minor acanthite, and rare native silver.
Alteration within the Santa Elena mine deposit is widespread. The volcanic units in the immediate vicinity of the veins exhibit pervasive p ........
