Stockworks Gold (TSX-V:STW) is tapping into the potential of a region of Brazil that was once the site of an historical district-scale gold rush, with the start of its maiden exploration program.
The company has started a high-resolution, low level drone airborne magnetics survey over its Pirenópolis Gold Project in the State of Goiás.
Pirenópolis is located along the same geological belt as Kinross Gold’s (NYSE:KGC) Paracatu mine in Brazil, which is the largest gold mine in Brazil and one of the largest globally.
The Pirenópolis project is interpreted to be an orogenic gold target with features similar to Paracatu.
Paracatu produces over 500,000 gold equivalent ounces annually and as of the end of December 2024 still held reserves of nearly 5 million ounces, expected to sustain the operation through to 2032.
Goiás, being the third-largest mining state in Brazil, has several other large operating gold mines including AngloGold Ashanti’s (NYSE:AU) Serra Grande, Lundin Mining’s (TSX:LUN) Chapada Copper-Gold Mine and private miner Pilar Gold’s PGDM complex, which comprises four mines.
The detailed survey Stockworks is undertaking at Pirenópolis will replace the existing high-level, wide-line spaced regional government airborne data.
Stockworks says it will provide detailed resolution which will be instrumental in moving the project forward.
CEO Nasim Tyab says launching the airborne magnetics and geochemical programs at Pirenópolis allows the company to integrate high-resolution geodata with promising early sampling results.
“This next phase is about unlocking the property’s geological potential through modern exploration methods in an area that had a district scale gold rush, between the mid 1700s and late 1800s, before mechanised mining methods were introduced,” Tyab says.
“We find this exciting as there has not yet been an economic bedrock source identified for the significant placer gold that propelled the gold rush.”
Pirenópolis is an early-stage project encompassing two parallel stream catchments containing highly anomalous gold in sediment samples.
In addition to highly anomalous stream sediment bulk leach extractable gold samples assaying 4.7 parts per million (ppm) gold and 3.9ppm gold, a quartz vein float boulder sampled in the stream bed load assayed 0.8 grams per tonne gold.
Government airborne geophysics also show a large-scale regional magnetic structural break cutting across the property up stream from the anomalous samples.
Stockworks’ main focus is the Pirenópolis project, but it also owns the Cabin Lake Project in the Northwest Territories in Canada, which has been the site of several drilling campaigns.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Stockworks Gold
