Variscan Mines Limited (ASX:VAR) has completed an Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Direct Current Induced Polarization (DCIP) survey comprising of 12 lines for a total of 17.6 km over the Buenahora Exploration License, within the Novales-Udias Zn-Pb Project in northern Spain.
The results from this ERT-DCIP survey are very positive, identifying numerous additional targets for future drill testing,” Managing Director and CEO, Stewart Dickson, said.
“Our immediate interest is the Line 11 anomaly, which is a large and intense target. When aggregated with adjacent anomalies it has a scale footprint larger than the San Jose Mine.
“We are planning to drill several holes over this target in our forthcoming surface drilling campaign. The quantity and quality of targets derived from the survey add further scale potential to this highly prospective licence area, which was controlled by Asturiana de Zinc (Xstrata-Glencore) until 2003.
“We knew that the tenement area has extensive MVT style carbonate-hosted zinc mineralisation featuring high-grade zinc and lead deposits across a multitude of historical workings.
“Following the survey, its prospectivity is substantially enhanced. We are excited to see the potential for the discovery of significant mineralisation.
“Surface drilling site preparations have commenced and we look forward to drill-testing this very promising area of the Novales-Udias project.
The results of the DCIP survey over the previously un-tested areas are highly significant for Variscan:
- Identified multiple new, zones of potentially high-grade mineralization that merit drilling;
- The IP anomalies occur over a wide area of the licence area and form linear features, interpreted to represent structurally-controlled mineral trends, consisting of multiple-stacked ore lenses, which is similar to the San Jose Mine and verified by geological observations of near-surface mine workings in the area;
The ERT-DCIP survey has shown an excellent correlation with the host-rock lithologies in the area, and confirmed planned drill targets as well as identified new ones;
- The majority of the targets identified are located within the shallow-dipping dolostone horizon of the Reocin Formation, however the survey results indicate that some underlying carbonate horizons, such as the San Esteban limestone formation could also be an important host for lead-zinc mineralization, as evidenced, by the strong IP anomalies identified on Line 4;
- The acquired data is a significant milestone in developing an integrated view of the exploration and development potential of the project.
The DCIP survey represents another step in the progression of Variscan’s systematic approach to exploration ahead of surface drilling over the Buenahora Exploration Licence. In combination, the geophysical, geological, geochemical and drilling data continues to indicate the potential for multiple clusters of MVT-style lead-zinc mineralisation to occur in much of the project area.
Variscan had already defined 21 exploration target zones across this licence area; this will now be expanded and also refined ahead of future drilling. The results of this DCIP survey directly support a key stated objective of Variscan’s exploration plan, which is to seek to define a regionally significant mineral resource similar in size and grade to the former producing and proximal Reocín Mine.
