Titan Minerals has vowed to expand the gold-silver system at its Dynasty project in the hills of Ecuador after unveiling a string of encouraging new hits at three separate targets outside of its recent mineral resource estimate (MRE).
The company says its recent diamond core drilling to confirm previous encouraging intercepts paves the way for future resource expansion work, which is already in the planning stage.
The three targets are about 3km apart from each other in the south-west area of the company’s 100 per cent owned-Dynasty gold project. One is between Titan’s Brecha-Comanche and Kaliman porphyry targets, while a second is at its Resbolosa prospect and the third is at Kaliman.
The company’s latest drilling between the overlapping Brecha-Comanche and Kaliman systems includes one hole designed to test a previous intersection of 7.27m at 9.89 grams per tonne gold, 28.0g/t silver and 0.24 per cent copper from 118.78m.
It says the follow-up hole confirms significant gold-silver mineralisation from shallow depths and extends the wide, high-grade gold, silver and anomalous copper mineralisation by an additional 30m laterally and 50m up-dip from mineralisation intersected in the previous drillhole.
The new hole offers up 12.96m at 3.39g/t gold and 18.46g/t silver from 96.04m, including 5.58m at 6.43g/t gold and 29.22g/t silver from 96.04m. It is supported by a second intercept of 2.85m at 6.03g/t gold and 7.95g/t silver from 128.15m, which includes 0.3m at 55.7g/t gold and 3.64g/t silver from 128.15m.
Three holes were designed to test extensions to the Resbolosa system of outcropping epithermal veins and cross-cutting structures where previous drilling had intersected 17.09m at 4.03g/t gold and 52.53g/t silver. Titan says two holes confirm about 40m of along-strike extension to the prospect’s gold mineralisation from shallow depths and highlight a dilational zone and associated brecciation.
One hole yielded 5.75m at 1.55g/t gold and 2.38g/t silver from 50.13m and 2.03m at 2.63g/t gold and 17.53g/t silver from 78.77m. A second hole, collared less than 50m away, offers up 4m at 2.2g/t gold and 15.72g/t silver from 130m.
Four new diamond holes were designed to test the extent of epithermal gold within the Kaliman porphyry, returning broad zones of lower-grade, but distinctly anomalous epithermal gold mineralisation from shallow depths.
One hole intercepted 3.87m at 1.06g/t gold and 7.13g/t silver from 25.13m and 1.94m at 2.61g/t gold and 4.42g/t silver from 76.06m. A second hole yields 56m at 0.15g/t gold, 0.76g/t silver and 0.05per cent copper from surface, accompanied by 20.41m at 0.26g/t gold, 0.82g/t silver and 0.07 per cent copper from 69.86m in the same hole.
Management notes that several other epithermal veins have been mapped and defined by trenching at surface at Kaliman and says it will be assessed and ranked with a view to prioritising drilling and to add further resources to the area.
These latest drill results further demonstrate the opportunity to substantially grow the epithermal gold-silver system at Dynasty, with additional shallow high-grade gold intersected at Cerro Verde. There are several areas along the Dynasty 9-kilometre vein system that have never been explored nor drilled, representing an excellent growth opportunity. The Company has recently gained access to these new unexplored areas, and exploration workstreams are being deployed which are expected to unveil the potential for further shallow vein hosted gold mineralisation. We expect several new targets to be defined from the surface mapping and geochemistry programs currently underway, with drilling to test these targets set to commence in early September. Titan Minerals chief executive officer Melanie Leighton
Cerro Verde is one of four projects that comprise the company’s Dynasty project that is centred on a fault-bounded, 2km-wide and 9km-long corridor comprising volcanics, intrusive porphyry and diorites. The company says 15 diamond drill holes were put into the prospect for 3796m and the results of the first seven holes were revealed in July.
Management notes that its latest drilling intercepts lie outside those included in its recently-revealed Dynasty MRE of 43.54 million tonnes at 2.23g/t gold and 15.7g/t silver for a contained 3.12 million ounces of gold and 21.98 million ounces of silver. Consequently, any qualifying new intercepts from the latest drilling program could potentially fall within and contribute to any resource expansion and revisions to the current MRE.
In addition to the diamond drilling program, the company is well-advanced in its preparations to test interpreted high-grade potential resource growth areas, with drilling set to commence at Dynasty in the coming weeks.
It says it is advancing its geochemical sampling and related coincident detailed mapping at the Papayal and Trapichillo prospects, which are also within the fault-bounded corridor at the north-eastern end of the Dynasty project area and about 6km along strike from the Cerro Verde deposit.
Titan says it anticipates further news flow shortly and hopes that new drill results, following the completion of its first phase of resource growth drilling, will enable an upgrade in the first quarter of next year.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au