Tesoro Gold’s exploration has defined the La Brea target area 15km north of its 1.3Moz Ternera gold deposit. Pic: Getty Images
Tesoro scores with compelling gold target at El Zorro project
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- Surface sampling defines compelling La Brea gold target area at Tesoro’s El Zorro project in Chile
- Channel sampling defines continuous, wide outcropping gold anomaly up to 200m wide
- First pass diamond drilling underway at Drone Hill
Special Report: Surface sampling at Tesoro Gold’s El Zorro gold project in Chile has returned further high-grade gold of up to 22.7g/t from the La Brea prospect area along with multiple additional outcropping anomalies.
Importantly, the results confirm that not only is a continuous, wide outcropping gold anomaly up to 200m wide present at La Brea, the outcropping mineralisation also shares strong geological similarities to the company’s 1.3Moz Ternera gold deposit ~15km to the south.
El Zorro covers 570km2 of highly prospective geology in the Atacama region about 800km north of the capital Santiago and 140km by road from the regional capital of Copiapo.
Tesoro Gold (ASX:TSO), which has a 93.8% interest in the project, has previously completed more than 100km of drilling and definition at the Ternera deposit.
Gold mineralisation at Ternera is predominately hosted within numerous intermediate intrusions and associated quartz and sulphide veins, veinlets, and alteration within faulted and strongly altered tonalitic intrusions.
Defined gold target
Surface work has now defined the “compelling” La Brea target area with channel sampling returning assays of 3m grading 22.7g/t gold and 27m at 0.64g/t gold including 3m at 10.65g/t gold from gold-bearing fault zones within sedimentary rocks.
Notably, this early exploration has identified broad zones – up to 200m – of alteration and gold anomalism with results suggesting the presence of a large-scale mineralised system within a 20km long gold corridor.
Outcropping gold mineralisation is controlled by multiple sub-parallel northwest trending faults and associated quartz veins and alteration.
TSO adds that the southwest sector of La Brea is located within an additional 27.6 hectares of recently acquired concessions, covering the entire mineralised zone believed to be associated with the prospect.
“La Brea is shaping up to be a highly compelling gold target. The encouraging surface sampling results validate and build upon our previous work, confirming the presence of multiple wide outcropping gold zones,” managing director Zeff Reeves said.
“Our findings suggest that La Brea shares many geological similarities with the Ternera gold deposit, firmly establishing it as a high-priority area for near-term drilling and only 15km from Ternea.”
Drone Hill drilling
TSO has also started first pass diamond drilling at the Drone Hill target just 750m northwest of Ternera where systematic sampling has defined a large surface gold anomaly.
Notable results from surface channel sampling include 47m at 1.4g/t gold including 9m at 4.66g/t gold and 42m at 0.42g/t gold, including 3m at 4.37g/t gold.
Core samples from the first of six holes have been submitted to ALS Laboratory in Santiago for analysis, with results expected within the next four weeks.
This article was developed in collaboration with Tesoro 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.
