Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) has agreed an option deal to acquire a gold-silver project in Northern Chile. It will take ownership of the 5,600 hectare Jiguata property by acquiring privately held Catalina Resources PLC, with a series of staged payments that puts the value of the assets between US$1.22 million and 1.5 million. Mariana said the deal is in-line with its project generation initiative to acquire prospective gold, silver and copper properties. "We are pleased with the option to earn 100 percent of Jiguata as part of the new project generation initiative announced last year,” said chairman John Horsburgh. "Early work indicates potential for a concealed high sulphidation gold-silver epithermal system with mapping and IP to define drill targets." Mariana is paying US$20,000 now, which will then be followed by a further US$40,000 payment in December this year. A year after that there will be another US$40,000 payment. Then in 2013 US$50,000 will be due on 1 June, follows by a US$150,000 payment on 1 December. A final US$1.2 million payment is due on the 1 December 2014, but this can be paid before then, and this would also extinguish any outstanding scheduled payments. Catalina will also retain a 2 percent royalty on net smelter returns. Mariana's Santiago-based exploration team will now put together a work programme to assess the project area. "This property will be one of the key focus areas of our Chilean exploration team whilst our Argentinean team remains committed to progressing and expanding our flagship Las Calandrias gold-silver discovery in Argentina for which Mariana has just released a maiden resource statement," Horsburgh added. The Santiago team plans to carry out geological mapping and geochemical sampling, which will be followed by Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysics, to identify potential ‘resistive horizons’ at depth. These targets would then be following up with either diamond or reverse circulation drilling. Jiguata comprises 19 exploration concessions, over a total area of 5,600 hectares. Describing the area’s geology, Mariana said: "The area largely consists of andesites and volcanic breccias of probable Miocene-Pliocene age showing alteration characteristics of high- sulphidation epithermal gold deposits. Potential host rocks are mostly covered by younger volcanics. "The older, altered rocks are exposed in erosional windows in the younger volcanic cover in the base of valleys."

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