• Diamond drilling at the Gaspar intrusive hits 190m thick pyritic porphyry halo, “lots of copper”
  • Gaspar is one of three porphyry intrusives at the El Pilar project
  • Antilles’ current 9-hole diamond drilling program is aimed at locating the porphyry ‘core’ at El Pilar
  • Porphyry systems can become large, low cost and long-life mining operations
  • The company is finalising a second joint venture with the Cuban Government’s mining company, GeoMinera, to hold 4 copper concessions that are currently held in an Exploration Agreement

 

Antilles Gold hits a “190m thick pyritic porphyry halo” in maiden diamond drilling at Gaspar, part of the exciting El Pilar copper-gold project in Cuba.

Gaspar is one of a cluster of three porphyry intrusives (El Pilar, Gaspar, and Camillo) at the underexplored project.

 

 

Porphyry systems – which can become large, low cost and long-life mining operations — always incorporate a number of intrusives that form in clusters, says Antilles Gold (ASX:AAU) exploration manager and porphyry expert Dr Christian Grainger.

But the potentially mineralized intrusive does not always immediately underlie the most obvious target, says Grainger, who played a hand in major finds like Buritica (10Moz gold), Alacran (+100Mt copper-gold), and the emerging Apollo copper-gold-silver discovery.

Antilles’ current 9-hole diamond drilling program will assist structural interpretation  aimed at locating the ‘core’ at El Pilar, he says.

The first three holes at Gaspar demonstrated strong copper results in the oxide zone, and evidence of copper minerals chalcopyrite and chalcocite as well as fingers of early porphyry in the underlying sulphide zone.

The adjacent El Pilar intrusive is ‘capped’ by a gold-copper oxide deposit, which is currently being drilled via a 7000m program to establish resources for the proposed near-term, low cap-ex Nueva Sabana mine.

 

‘Lots of copper’ at Gaspar

Cores from the three latest diamond holes at Gaspar support Antilles’ belief it is sitting on a porphyry payload at the project.

Hole GDH-003 penetrated an extensive 190m thick pyritic porphyry halo, with mineralisation identified within veining and minor brecciation.

Potential mineralisation is also open to the east in the direction of the Camillo porphyry intrusive, where a large and coincident magnetic and IP chargeability anomaly is located.

Hole GDH-002 also hit porphyry style mineralisation, while GDH-001 intersected an upper oxide gold zone with quartz – hematite veins from surface to 40m down hole depth.

“We are quite excited about what we have seen at Gaspar, identifying lots of copper particularly in Hole GDH-003, and interpreted high temperature early porphyry, and are confident we will locate the larger parts of the mineralized system with additional drilling,” Dr Christian Grainger says.

Assays are due in about 6 weeks.

 

Formalising the El Pilar JV

There will be a pause in exploration while a new joint venture is formalised with GeoMinera, and the two El Pilar concessions (17,750ha) are transferred from an exploration agreement to the joint venture.

Antilles Gold (ASX:AAU) expects to develop several projects via joint ventures with the Government’s mining company, GeoMinera SA, with the plan to invest a portion of the profits from its near term La Demajagua and Nueva Sabana gold mine developments into exploration of large copper targets – including the El Pilar porphyry system.

Drafting of the joint venture documentation has commenced and will be based on the existing Minera La Victoria joint venture documentation which was established for the development of the La Demajagua, and Nueva Sabana mines.

The new agreement is expected to establish a majority foreign ownership for Antilles Gold that would accommodate a major mining company participating in exploration activities, or a mine development at some time in the future.

Antilles Gold has proposed a 75% foreign ownership, but this has yet to be confirmed.

 

Drilling planned for October

The company is planning to drill an additional 3 holes in October this year to complete the initial 9-hole program on the El Pilar porphyry system.

 

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.

 

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