Low sulfidation epithermal
A gold mine with two pits, Santa Rosa and Alto de la Mina.

Owned by Golden Phoenix.

GPS coordinates are copied from the "The Diggings" website (see link below).

Below is an observation written by Stephen Turner in 2012:

"I visited this gold mine in Panama in 2000. There is not much published mineralogical information on the mine/district. Congratulations on your collectible specimen - I didn't find anything worth keeping in my short visit. The mine was operated, not very successfully, by Greenstone Resources, which is now defunct. The project is currently held by Golden Phoenix Minerals (www.golden-phoenix.com), and their website has a lot of information, especially if you look up their 43-101 report, but probably not much mineralogical. I have attached a few extracts from my report below:

Santa Rosa comprises structurally-controlled, low-sulfidation veins and stockwork, silicified hydrothermal breccias and stratigraphic-controlled replacements in a volcaniclastic/sedimentary sequence. Gold mineralization is associated with quartz veins and stockwork and is also disseminated in the carbonaceous sedimentary to volcaniclastic rocks. The mineralization is mixed oxide/sulfide and in part refractory with the Au apparently encapsulated in pyrite. The depth of oxidation averages about 20 m. At the Alta de la Mina pit mineralization is associated with a NW-trending fault which hosts a basaltic dike and a silicified hydrothermal breccia. Marginal wallrocks in the andesitic flows have stockwork quartz - calcite - sulfide veins. In the main Santa Rosa pit A the gold zone is more tabular, occurring at the almost horizontal contact of the bedded volcaniclastic sequence with overlying andesitic flows.

Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral with lesser marcasite, arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite recorded. Gangue minerals include quartz, calcite, adularia and minor barite. Given the silver content, I would expect some silver minerals are present."

It estimated resources in 2016 of 21.0 Mt at 1.16 g/t Au (24.26 t) measured and indicated plus 3.4 Mt at 1.80 g/t (6.22 t) inferred in three deposits, ADLM, Santa Rosa and Cerro Otero, in addition to 5.0 Mt at 0.75 g/t Au (3.73) on the old leach pads (Veragold website). Mineralization is hosted by volcaniclastic and subvolcanic rocks and breccias of the Cañazas Formation. The lowest rocks are very fine-grained, laminated black carbonaceous sediments with fine grained tuffs and sediments, overlain by coarser felsic tuffs and sediments. There are three arcuate-shaped deposits on the north side of a circular feature interpreted to be the rim of a caldera: Cerro Otero, Santa Rosa which is hosted by tuffs, and Alto de la Mina in fractured andesite. Alteration is central quartz-adularia-pyrite surrounded by zones of argillic (kaolinite-montmorillonite), carbonate and chlorite alteration. Gold mineralization is hosted by “jigsaw” breccias with a silicified milled rock matrix with low pyrite (<1%) at Santa Rosa, and by a stockwork of quartz-calcite-pyrite-rich (10%) veinlets at Alto de la Mina.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References