Southern Hemisphere has started drilling a bevy of new targets at its Llahuin copper-gold project. Pic: urbazon at Getty Images.
New drilling could amplify the scale of Southern Hemisphere’s 169Mt Llahuin copper-gold project
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- Southern Hemisphere starts drilling to test new targets, extend existing ones at Llahuin
- Exploration is aimed at delivering enough resources to extend mine life
- First results from drilling expected in mid-November
Southern Hemisphere has commenced diamond and reverse circulation drilling at its flagship Llahuin copper-gold project to test recently generated targets.
Llahuin is 8km southwest from Santiago-listed Pucobre’s El Espino copper-gold mine development, where a 23.6% interest is being farmed out for US$93m.
El Espino has a resource of 145Mt at 0.7% copper equivalent, which hints heavily about the value contained within Southern Hemisphere’s (ASX:SUH) Llahuin.
Llahuin itself currently has an open-pittable resource of 169Mt at 0.4% copper equivalent, most of which is contained within the higher confidence measured and inferred categories.
The company has plans to make it even more attractive, with drilling now underway to test multiple targets generated from the recent soil geochemistry sampling program, which returned hits like 7.28% copper, 18.65 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 55g/t silver.
This 2500m program will also test the Southern Porphyry copper-gold target and extensions to mineralised zones uncovered by previous drilling.
This includes an intriguing area between the Cerro de Oro and Ferrocarril sectors where recent soil geochemistry demonstrates a significant copper and gold anomaly.
This drilling is deigned to increase open-pittable resources up to the level required to support a 25-year mine life.
Drilling now underway
Southern Hemisphere has contracted Chilean contractor DV Drilling to carry out the 2500m diamond and RC drill program at Llahuin.
The rig has arrived at the Llahuin site and drilling has commenced at the Cerro de Oro deposit testing downdip extensions from the previous drilling program.
First results from the drilling are expected from mid-November.
This article was developed in collaboration with Southern Hemisphere, 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.
