Antilles Gold believes it could have one hand on a tier-one copper-gold project at its El Pilar exploration concession in Cuba, with a 3D model based on ground magnetics and surveys showing three big porphyry deposits.
The company says if upcoming drilling replicates the results of a single hole drilled into the El Pilar deposit last year – that returned a 134m hit going 1.23 per cent copper from 49m – then it could represent a significant porphyry system.
Antilles has engaged a contractor to complete a 10,000m diamond drilling campaign on the three porphyry intrusives at its El Pilar, Gaspar and Camilo targets down to depth of 600m, with the program set to begin next week. The porphyry drill campaign is in addition to an ongoing 7000m drilling program to a depth of 100m at its El Pilar gold-copper oxide deposit.
The latest 3D model of the porphyry system is based on results from over 40 line kilometres of ground magnetics and induced polarisation (IP) surveys completed in March. The company says the IP chargeability zones modelled at various depths from 100m to 750m indicate the potential scale of sulphide mineralised zones within the intrusives.
Sample preparation from the El Pilar drilling will be carried out in Cuba, with assays to be undertaken by SGS in Peru indicating a 12-day turnaround. Consequently, drilling results should start to be received from the current 7,000m program on the El Pilar gold-copper oxide deposit by mid-June 2023, and from the 10,000m program on the El Pilar copper-gold porphyry system, one month later. Antilles Gold executive chairman Brian Johnson
The El Pilar porphyry body is interpreted to extend through a 300m strike and a 200m width. At the nearby Gaspar target, the porphyry has been outlined over a 200m strike and up to a 200m width.
Both targets have been interpreted to extend vertically down to the lower limits detected by the surveys – at depths of a whopping 800m from surface. The company says surface copper-gold mineralisation and intense hydrothermal alteration at El Pilar and Gaspar are part of the same porphyry-related hydrothermal metalliferous system.
Ground magnetic and IP geophysical surveys are techniques widely used in the exploration industry and can successfully map out zones of sulphide-hosted mineralisation. Antilles notes that a series of sub-vertical porphyry intrusives are clearly evident in the IP data, with anomalism potentially related to copper-rich chalcopyrite mineralisation.
Encouragingly, the interpreted porphyry bodies coincide with a suite of key porphyry mineral assemblages mapped at the surface and logged in shallow historical drilling.
The El Pilar project covers 1700 hectares and is one of three exploration concessions currently held by Antilles in its joint venture agreement with the Cuban Government’s mining company, GeoMinera SA.
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