Exploration at the Capote Project will include Bastion’s newly optioned ground, which hosts the San Juan vein system. Pic: DNY59 (E+) via Getty Images.
Bastion keen to kick off drilling at San Juan – the missing piece in its Capote gold play
Mining
share
Gold explorer Bastion Minerals is gearing up to start drilling at its Capote gold project in Chile.
Last month the company secured an option to acquire the previously producing San Juan project which sits in the centre of the Captote land.
And earlier this month a $2.2 million placement was finalised, with the aim to kickstart an aggressive exploration program as soon as possible.
Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) executive chairman Ross Landles said the company held all the land around San Juan and the option agreement secured the “missing piece of the puzzle”.
“Our strategy is to identify, acquire and explore high-grade gold districts that have been locked up for decades – and potentially have missed any modern exploration methods,” he said.
“San Juan produced about 700,000 ounces at about 52 grams per tonne up to the late ‘60s.
“And these initial funds will assist us in looking at the old workings and work out a drill program that goes beyond where the old miners tended to mine – which was only down to about 400m.”
Exploration planned at other Chilean projects
While the company is focused on its Capote gold play, it’s also planning drilling at the Garin gold-silver project and the Cometa copper project – also in Chile.
“We’ve done preliminary work on all the assets in the portfolio, and we’ve been pretty encouraged by the results from both Garin and Cometa,” Landles said.
“Rock chip samples and geophysics and mapping at our copper project has confirmed where we should drill, and the preliminary work at Cometa has also given us several defined targets.
“As soon as we put some holes into the Capote gold project, we will be straight into the other two almost immediately. We should be drilling on both of those projects before the end of the year.”
Exploring where the majors don’t operate
Landles said the company is now in a sweet spot with its landholding in Chile.
“We’re looking for high-grade gold in a range of around 1-3 million ounces in an area where the majors tend to not operate,” he said.
“The majors are looking for things that are 5 million ounces and above, so we seem to be in a reasonable sweet spot where we’ve got – we think – a higher likelihood of discovering some high grade and reasonable sized resources.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Bastion Minerals, 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.
