Sunstone Metals (ASX:STM) has uncovered a porphyry copper system at depth following a drilling program at the T2 porphyry target within its El Palmar Gold-Copper Project in northern Ecuador.
The company says the system has been intersected in an area where targets T2 and T3 merge and strengthen as the hole extends, which suggests that the T3 target hosts the most prospective part of the system.
Sunstone reports the system has been confirmed through widespread chalcopyrite distribution, transitional potassic alteration, copper-sulphide-bearing A vein and B vein stockworks, as well as anomalous copper readings in pXRF results however assays are pending.
Additionally, the presence of magnetic veins at depth also gives confidence that this system correlates with a large cluster of magnetite bodies at the T3 target.
The company notes that T3 mineralisation intersected at depth in hole EPDD026 extends towards surface. Meanwhile, surface exploration has also identified stockwork veining in minor local outcrops.
With exploration still ongoing, Sunstone Metals announces assays from drilling are expected to be received in 4-6 weeks.
Speaking on the results, Sunstone Metals Managing Director Malcolm Norris says: “Drillhole EPDD026 has tested three targets, firstly the upper gold anomalous zone at T1-T2 drilled in holes EPDD022, 23 and 24, secondly the large MT geophysical anomaly in the southern part of the T2 target at an intermediate depth, and thirdly at depth on the northwest margin of the large cluster of magnetic bodies that make up the T3 target.
It is in this third environment on the margin of the T3 magnetic complex that an extensive porphyry system is now being intersected.
“It is in this third environment on the margin of the T3 magnetic complex that an extensive porphyry system is now being intersected”
While it is early days, it is very exciting to have identified a mineralised porphyry copper system at T3 and to have identified a very large domain of potential mineralisation extending towards surface defined by magnetic bodies.”
Sunstone Metals is an ASX-listed company with an advanced portfolio of exploration projects scattered around the South American nation of Ecuador. The company’s El Palmar project is located in northern Ecuador in the same regional structural belt that hosts the 2.66Bt Alpala copper-gold deposit grading 0.25g/t gold and 0.37% copper, as well as the 0.53Bt Tandayama-America deposit grading 0.19g/t gold and 0.24% copper.
Sunstone currently holds a 70% interest in the project, and has the option to acquire 100% through a staged acquisition agreement.
Images: Sunstone Metals Ltd
