Los Cerros Limited (ASX: LCL) has announced encouraging drill results from Tesorito and Chuscal, part of the Quinchia Project in Risaralda, Colombia, reporting that step-out drilling at Tesorito South continues to grow the dimensions of the Tesorito South porphyry.
The latest drilling results of intercepted zones of higher-grade gold within a broad zone of near surface mineralisation included 176.8m @ 1.02g/t Au from surface in TS-DH18 including 54m @ 1.61g/t Au from surface and 40m @ 1.67g/t Au from 112m; 310m @ 0.74g/t Au from surface in TS-DH22 including 10m @ 1.37g/t Au from 4m and 40m @ 1.1g/t Au from 128m; and 367.95m @ 0.57g/t Au from surface in TS-DH23 including 24m @ 0.99g/t Au from 2m and 42.7m @ 0.92g/t Au from 120m and 26.15m @ 0.85g/t Au from 193.5m.
near surface mineralisation included 176.8m @ 1.02g/t Au from surface
The company said that the higher-grade shallow gold in hole TS-DH22 demonstrated potential for further shallow higher-grade gold in the undrilled gap between Tesorito South and Tesorito North.
LCL said that the Chuscal East drilling intercepts targeted porphyry units and minor zones of mineralisation including 32m @ 1.64g/t Au from 404m in CHDDH13. The company said that two rigs are currently at the new Ceibal surface porphyry target, while the third rig is testing eastern extensions of Tesorito South.
Drilling at Quinchia project
The company had recently commenced a drilling campaign at Tesorito and Chuscal within the Quinchia project focussed on expanding the lateral dimensions of modelled gold envelopes to the south and north, including higher-grade sub-zones that showed remarkable consistency and persistence across much of the drilling campaign.
Tesorito South
As part of the larger campaign, Tesorito South drilling campaign had commenced to extend the lateral dimensions of the known gold mineralisation.
The company said that at Tesorito South, drill holes TS-DH18 and TS-DH19 were drilled fanning out to the SE and NE respectively, from the same pad as drill holes TS-DH16 and TS-DH17, while holes TS-DH22 and TS-DH23 were drilled to test the north-eastern and northern limits respectively.
Chuscal
The company said that drill holes CHDDH12 and CHDDH13 tested the Chuscal East porphyry target zone. LCL said that the previously reported visual logging of CHDDH12 had intersected a suite of diorite, porphyritic diorite plus a 164m wide zone of magmatic breccia interpreted to represent elements of an underlying causative porphyry partly responsible for the significant extent of the Chuscal gold in soil anomaly. Hole CHDDH13 was sited to test ~200m below the CHDDH12 zone of interest.
High-grade drill results
The company reported that all recent Tesorito results remained within mineralisation and therefore the system remains open in directions tested, which continues to bode very well for the scale of the project.
The company said that the drilling at the Chuscal East porphyry target intercepted units of the targeted porphyry suite, including magmatic breccia and diorites recording a 32m wide zone of particular interest.
Tesorito South
The company said that at Tesorito South, robust results were delivered from TS-DH18 and TS-DH19 with mineralisation starting from surface and continuing until the drill crossed the Marmato Fault, leaving the porphyry system at 176.8m and ~210m respectively. The company said that the drill holes TS-DH22 and TS-DH23 intercepted very broad zones of lower grade gold mineralisation with sub-zones of higher grade.
Standout results included 176.8m @ 1.02g/t Au from surface in TS-DH18 including 54m @ 1.61g/t Au from surface and 40m @ 1.67g/t Au from 112m; 209m @ 1.01g/t Au from surface in TS-DH19 including 102m @ 1.33g/t Au from surface including 18.5m @ 2.03g/t Au from 56.6m; 310m @ 0.74g/t Au from surface in TS-DH22 including 10m @ 1.37g/t Au from 4m and 40m @ 1.1g/t Au from 128m; and 367.95m @ 0.57g/t from surface in TS-DH23 including 42.7m @ 0.92g/t Au from 120m.
Chuscal
The company reported that at Chuscal, both holes, CHDDH12 and CHDDH13 delivered extensive, but marginally elevated gold values.
LCL said that a 32m wide zone capturing a central diorite surrounded by magmatic breccia produced intercept of 32m @ 1.64g/t Au from 404m in CHDDH13.
What’s next?
The company reported that additional drilling is required to systematically test the nature and extent of mineralisation. LCL said that the objective of the program is to provide a guide to the mineralization potential of the system, both in terms of potential grade and volume, to guide resource targeted drilling in a third phase drilling program.
“It is becoming more apparent…that our Quinchia Gold Project has great potential to evolve into a multi-million ounce gold project”
Management comments
Los Cerros Managing Director, Jason Stirbinskis said: “The near surface higher grade gold intercepts of holes 18 and 19 suggest the higher grade core of the porphyry system reaches surface to the east of this pad, an area we are currently drilling.
It is becoming more apparent, with every drill hole that grows the potential scale of Tesorito, that our Quinchia Gold Project has great potential to evolve into a multi-million ounce gold project, like many of its neighbours. We already have over 1.3Moz of JORC Resources defined2, before we consider what we may be able to delineate in the Tesorito South area and at other earlier stage prospects.
The Company has previously announced plans for deep penetrating IP geophysics which will begin shortly. It is expected this program will provide critical additional information for drilling both the western area of the Tesorito South porphyry (Tesorito West) and Tesorito Nort.”
Image Source: Los Cerros Limited