Where there’s smoke, there’s fire: Equus dials in on high grade gold, silver at Cerro Bayo

Special Report: Early drilling results indicate Equus Mining (ASX: EQE) is dialling in on a wide, high-grade gold and silver system at Droughtmaster, part of the advanced Cerro Bayo project in Chile.

The Droughtmaster prospect was identified by Equus as a high priority target area just 12km from the soon-to-be operational Cerro Bayo processing facility which has produced ~45Moz of silver & ~0.65Moz of gold of historical production between 1995-2017.

Fresh results — like 2.05m at 2.36 g/t gold and 151.4 g/t silver, ~56m from surface which included 0.21m @ 13.10 g/t gold, 566.0 g/t silver from 81.6m– are characteristic of the upper and outer portions of a strong gold-silver mineralised epithermal vein system, Equus says.

Further drilling will seek to ‘vector in’ on the wider high-grade mineralised portions of the vein system.

Four holes at Droughtmaster are still pending which tested down dip and along strike from previously drilled hole CDB020, which returned 3.81m at 20.4 g/t gold and 55.5 g/t silver from 109m.

“Initial high-grade results relating to relatively shallow intercepts at Droughtmaster provide continued encouragement for the potential of the prospect to host significant high-grade, gold-silver mineralisation,” Equus chief operating office Damien Koerber said.

“Upon completion of the stage 2 follow-up program and compilation of final results, further drilling will be designed accordingly.”

A ‘dual track’ development strategy

The company has a ‘dual-track’ development strategy for Cerro Bayo — explore the numerous greenfields gold and silver targets while re-evaluating existing brownfields resources at Taitao, close to the Cerro Bayo processing plant, for near-term production.

The Taitao resource estimation is due for completion in November.

There’s significant potential for additional resources around the existing mined areas, which produced ~45Moz of silver and ~650,000oz of gold between 1995 and 2017, Equus says.

Mandalay Resources also plans to commission the 500,000t per annum plant at Taitao through processing low-grade stockpiles by early 2021, at an initial rate of 40,000 tonnes per month.

This gives Equus the opportunity to fast-track full scale production.

This article was developed in collaboration with Equus Mining, 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.