Challenger Exploration Limited has announced results from a series of drillholes from the company’s flagship Hualilan Gold project in San Juan, Argentina.
The results are from the first seven holes from a series of 26 completed holes designed to test for extensions to the:
- High-grade mineralisation in the Magnata Fault at depth and in both directions along strike;
- The high-grade Magnata Manto both up and down-dip and along strike; and
- The broad zones of intrusive hosted mineralisation north and south of the Magnata Fault.
Given the results, and the visual mineralisation (skarn alteration with sulphides) logged in many of the remaining 17 drill holes (assays pending), a further 15 holes have been programmed to continue to extend and infill the mineralisation at Magnata.
Challenger’s Managing Director, Kris Knauer, said the results from the first seven holes from the current drilling at the project, together with previous drilling, confirms the company’s view that there is a significant amount of high-grade gold mineralisation yet to be discovered due to a lack of drilling.
“The growth potential at our flagship Hualilan Gold Project is becoming progressively more apparent. We are waiting on assays for another 19 completed Magnata drill holes and 15 more holes have been programmed to continue to extend and infill the mineralisation at Magnata. We look forward to the next batch of assays from our Magnata drilling which should not be far away.”
In prior drilling, the mineralisation on the Magnata Fault was relatively continuous over 300 metres of strike and 160 metres vertical extent, with mineralisation remaining open at depth and in both directions along strike.
Challenger notes that the north-south striking limestone hosted high-grade “Manto” mineralisation which was historically noted as extending south from the Magnata Fault and dipping west had produced some narrow drill intercepts, however, drilling had previously failed to locate the main part of the Magnata Manto.
The company also advised that drilling intersected broad zones of intrusive hosted mineralisation in the 200 metres north and south of the Magnata fault. The mineralisation is interpreted as dipping to the west with a true width of 50 to 100 metres and covering 300 metres vertical extent from the surface.
Summary of the current Magnata drill results
GNDD-203, the company’s deepest test of the Magnata Fault increased the vertical extent of the mineralisation on the Magnata Fault from 160 to 260 metres intersecting 3.6 metres at 16.2 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold equivalent (AuEq) [1].
Challenger states that the confirmation that mineralisation remains strong at depth has the potential to significantly expand the high-grade mineralisation.
A deeper hole below GNDD-203 is planned with a series of holes (assays pending) to test the Magnata Fault at depth over 200 metres of strike to the west of GNDD-203.
GNDD-174, GNDD-189 and GNDD-195 all intersected significant widths of high-grade mineralisation up-dip from earlier holes which had returned narrow lower grade intersections in the Magnata Manto.
Drilling will now be directed up-dip with over 100 metres of up-dip vertical extent of the Magnata Manto over at least 300 metres of untested strike.
GNDD-174 extended the zone of intrusive hosted mineralisation intersected in GNDD-157 some 60 metres south along strike and 100 metres up-dip.
Visible gold occurs in intrusives that outcrop up-dip of GNDD-174 indicating approximately 150 metres of vertical extent of mineralised intrusives.
GNDD-174 and GNDD-203 intersected broad zones of near-surface mineralisation above the main high-grade zone recording 76.0 metres at 1.8 g/t AuEq [1] from 24 metres, and 37 metres at 0.5 g/t AuEq [1] from 46 metres. This near-surface mineralisation is extensive and should enhance development options.
[1] Gold Equivalent (AuEq) values – Requirements under the JORC Code
- Assumed commodity prices for the calculation of AuEq is Au US$1780 Oz, Ag US$24 Oz, Zn US$2,800 /t
- Metallurgical recoveries for Au, Ag and Zn are estimated to be 89%, 84% and 79% respectively (see JORC Table 1 Section 3 Metallurgical assumptions in the announcement here) based on metallurgical test work.
- The formula used: AuEq (g/t) = Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) x (24/1780) x (0.84/0.89)] + [Zn (%) x (28.00*31.1/1780) x (0.79/0.89)]
- Challenger confirms that it is the company’s opinion that all the elements included in the metal equivalents calculation have a reasonable potential to be recovered and sold.