Los Cerros Limited (ASX: LCL) has commenced drilling at the Chuscal gold target in Colombia utilising a second service provider rig.
Chuscal is 1.5km south of the Tesorito porphyry target where drilling continues, currently into the third hole of an expanded programme. Assays of the second Tesorito drill hole are expected in the coming weeks.
In addition, the company’s own Atlas Copco C5C diamond drill rig has arrived at the port of Buenaventura, on the Colombian Pacific coast and is planned to be drill-ready in late October, at which point the company expects to have three diamond rigs active across its Quinchia Gold Project, promising a highly active and sustained period of drilling ahead.
The Chuscal drilling programme will focus initially on short-hole step out drilling pursuing high grade gold carried in epithermal veining.
Managing Director, Jason Stirbinskis, said this near surface, vein-hosted mineralisation could offer a potential source of top-up feed to enhance the Miraflores Project feasibility economics with the proposed plant location less than 2km north.
Armed with further vectoring information from this shallow drilling, a programme of deeper holes will then resume the search for causative porphyry(ies), the source of the extensive porphyry associated gold encountered over an expansive area of Chuscal.
Los Cerros completed its maiden drilling programme at Chuscal in January 2020. A four hole ~1,900m program demonstrated that porphyry-associated gold is more widespread than previously assumed, as evidenced by the very long drill core intercepts over an extensive area including: 350m @ 0.57g/t Au from surface; and 320m @ 0.43g/t Au from 32m to 352m.
The Chuscal program will initially be focussed on the Montana and Corporacion E-W vein corridors,” Mr Stirbinskis said.
“These vein sets, and secondary splays branching from them, have been mined by small scale artisanal operations for two generations and are also accountable for many of the better intercepts from the company’s maiden drill programme.”