Hole PDH-45A encountered repeated high-grade copper intercepts from the upper horizon of the copper oxide zone to end of hole at 290m. Pic via Getty Images.
Mining
Antilles says ‘outstanding’ copper intersections have been confirmed by pXRF readings in the latest diamond drill hole through the oxide copper domain at El Pilar.
Antille’s (ASX:AAU) is developing two near term gold mining projects (Nueva Sabana and La Demajagua) to fund its quest for large copper porphyries in Cuba through a partnership with the Government’s mining company, GeoMinera.
Porphyry mines are huge responsible for ~60 per cent of the world’s copper, most of its molybdenum, and significant amounts of gold and silver.
Their easy-mining large volumes make up for the low grades, typically between 0.3 per cent to 1 per cent copper equivalent.
But finding and proving up these company makers is expensive, often requiring numerous deep, very expensive drill holes into ‘blind’ exploration targets hidden under cover or at great depths.
Hence the proposed near term mine developments at Nueva Sabana – which is based on the El Pilar gold-copper oxide deposit that overlays a large copper-gold porphyry system — and La Demajagua.
An ongoing 7,000m drilling program, designed to culminate in a maiden resource for Nueva Sabana, has now returned “some of the most intense porphyry style copper mineralization to date with strong veining, and stockwork hosting large lengths of visual copper sulphide mineralization”, the company says.
There were multiple high-grade hits recorded via pXRF across hole PDH 045A, from the upper horizon of the copper oxide zone to end of hole at 290m within the porphyry sulphide.
Highlights include:
While no substitute for lab assays, portable X-Ray Fluorescence, or pXRF, has become a key part of the exploration geologist’s toolkit, a real time sampling tool used to identify areas of promise.
Caption: The El Pilar oxide deposit overlies a rich copper porphyry, which remains open at depth.
“This encouraging intersection of copper mineralization in sulphides, confirmed by the XRF readings, in the most southeastern parts of the El Pilar prospect gives us great encouragement for the upcoming deeper drilling to target the porphyry body at depth,” AAU exploration director Christian Grainger says.
“Given the drillhole terminated in mineralised porphyry in a fault zone, the copper mineralized porphyry remains open at depth and this is what we will be targeting in the short term”.
This article was developed in collaboration with Antilles Gold, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
