Challenger Exploration Limited (ASX: CEL) has announced an encouraging update on its review of the historical exploration data on the Colorado V tenement in Ecuador.
The company reported that the logging of the historical drill core from the Colorado V concession continues to make good progress.
CEL said that it has located 56 historical drill holes for a total of 21,472 metres of drilling. The company reported that all holes reviewed and logged contain overlooked porphyry and/or intrusive breccia hosted mineralisation.
The company announced that the logging of hole ZK1-3 has identified a zone of over 300 metres of intrusive breccia hosted mineralisation and over 150 metres of similar mineralisation has been logged in hole ZK1-5.
CEL reported that 5,237 metres of core has been moved to El Guayabo for logging, with the balance to be transported after the core trays are replaced due to poor condition.
The company said that core from 6 of 56 holes has now been reviewed with three of these logged in detail. CEL said that the sampling of core and submission of samples for assay will start by the end of this week.
Colorado V tenement
The Colorado V tenement covers 2,331 hectares (23.3 sq. kms) and is located on the northern and eastern margins of the El Guaybo Tenement.
Farm-in agreement
CEL had announced an agreement to farm-in to the Colorado V tenement in Ecuador on 8 January 2020. Under the terms of the farm-in agreement, CEL will fund all exploration for the first 5 years to earn up to a 50% interest in any discovery it makes on the tenement.
CEL and the current owner will then jointly fund a Definitive Feasibility Study and ongoing development.
Exploration data review of Colorado V
The company had recently commenced the review of the historical exploration data on the Colorado V tenement in Ecuador.
CEL said that it is now making notable progress on the review. The company reported that the core from 6 of the 56 historical drill holes (for a total of 21,472 metres of drilling) on the concession has been reviewed with 3 of these drill holes logged in detail.
Core logging program
The company reported that a total of 5,237 metres of core has now been moved to El Guayabo for logging.
CEL said that at this stage the core is being logged on the basis of availability. This is because the remaining core boxes will need to be replaced before the balance of the core can be transported to El Guayabo for logging.
The company anticipates that new core boxes will be available on site in the next 1-2 weeks. Once all core has been transported to El Guayabo, CEL said that core logging will prioritise those intervals where Goldking Geologists had indicated porphyry mineralisation was overlooked.
Logging completed for drill holes ZK1-3, ZK1-5
The company reported that the detailed core logging of drill holes ZK1-3, ZK1-5 has been completed.
CEL said that the logging of ZK1-6 in progress as well as spot examination of core from drill holes ZK13-1, ZK0-1 and ZK2-1. This was undertaken during checking to determine which core needed to be re-boxed prior to transport to El Guayabo for logging.
Large zones of bulk mineralisation
The company reported that all holes reviewed and logged contain overlooked porphyry and/or intrusive breccia hosted mineralisation.
Holes ZK13-1, ZK0-1, ZK2-1
The company announced that the spot sampling of holes ZK13-1, ZK0-1 and ZK2-1 confirmed the presence of various zones of porphyry-style mineralisation and intrusive breccia.
CEL said that alteration and mineralisation included potassic alteration (with phyllic overprinting) and disseminated pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite +/- molybdenite +magnetite with porphyry-style A, B, and D veins observed.
Holes ZK1-3, ZK1-5
CEL said that in drill hole ZK1-3, logging indicated an interval of over 300 metres of intrusive breccia hosted mineralisation containing disseminated pyrite, pyrrhotite, and lesser chalcopyrite.
The company said that the logging of drill hole ZK1-5 indicated an interval of approximately 150 metres of mineralised intrusive breccia albeit with more abundant sulphides.
The company noted that these intrusive breccias look similar to the mineralised intrusive breccias encountered in drill hole GY- 02 (156m at 2.6 g/t gold, 9.7 g/t silver, 0.2% copper) and JDH-13 (64m at 1.4 g/t gold, 2.8 g/t silver, 0.1% copper) at El Guayabo which have a porphyry source.
ZK1-3 and ZK1-5 to be priority
CEL said that the ZK1-3 and ZK1-5 mineralised zones will be sampled for assaying as a priority to determine if they contain potentially economic gold and copper mineralisation.
Next steps
The company announced further work planned for Colorado V Project as well as El Guaybo Project.
El Guaybo Project
CEL said that the next steps at El Guaybo Project include re-logging and re-assaying core including SWIR/alteration mapping to better vector on the porphyry and breccia targets ; channel sampling of the adit and artisanal workings; sampling of additional breccia bodies; and the complete interpretation of the 3D MT survey (with IP lines) covering 16 sq, which will include integration of all the geological data and constrained inversion modelling, and MMI soil survey covering 16 sq. kms.
CEL said that the aim of the program above is to define targets for a drilling program.
Colorado V Project
Challenger reported that further work at Colorado V Project includes re-logging and re-assaying core only partial gold assays are available assays; channel sampling of mineralized exposures in the adits and underground workings; surface mapping and sampling; and compiling and integrating existing soil survey data with CEL’s MMI soil survey covering 16 sq. kms.
The company said that the aim of the program above is to define targets for a drilling program
Management comments
CEL Managing Director, Kris Knauer, said: “It is early days yet however we are excited by what we are seeing in the drill core from the Colorado V concession. Having completed an initial look at only 6 of the 56 holes, already these holes appear to contain large zones of bulk mineralisation that will need to be assayed.
At the very least, what we are seeing in the drill core indicates that the historical drilling has intersected the halo of a mineralised porphyry system and it is a case of vectoring into the core of the system to test if it contains economic grades of gold and copper.”