News

April 14, 2008

Mariana Resources Has A Full Measure Of Enthusiasm And A Sizeable Project At Sierra Blanca

By Rob Davies

If enthusiasm was any measure of potential success then John Sutcliffe is a man to back. He’s the managing director of - and the driving force behind - Mariana Resources. Too many junior resource companies are run by Home Counties explorers or legal eagles from the suburbs. John lives in Quito and has spent the last couple of decades in South America. His enthusiasm for the continent and its geological potential is almost limitless. Most of his conversation with Minews was about Mariana’s Sierra Blanca project in Santa Cruz province of Argentina, which is where the company’s best chance of success lies, at least in the short term. However, in addition to Sierra Blanca, the company has several very prospective targets elsewhere in Argentina as well as in Chile, Peru and Ecuador.

For John, the exciting thing about the Sierra Blanca project is its size - over 20 kilometres of potential strike length. And the wider area has already thrown up a lot of large deposits. Cerro Vanguardia has six million ounces and both Andean and Exeter Resources have made substantial discoveries in the neighbourhood. John does not glamorise exploration in the region, though. He says it is a bleak, dry and windswept plain, where exploration is made harder by a layer of volcanic ash from an...