Titan Minerals has kicked off a resource growth drill campaign at its Papayal prospect – part of its greater Dynasty project in Ecuador – with 24 holes planned for 2650m as it targets high-grade extensions.
The mineral resource at the target sits at 900,000 tonnes at 4.54 grams per tonne gold and 50.85g/t silver for a contained figure of 130,000 gold ounces and 1.43 million ounces of silver.
Rock-chip samples previously collected from Papayal returned impressive figures including one grading 43.1g/t gold and 1500g/t silver. A second sample from the prospect returned 26g/t gold and 155g/t silver, while a third recorded 22.7g/t gold and 689g/t silver.
Management says a second rig is currently in operation at the company’s Cerro Verde prospect where seven diamond drill holes for 787m have been completed, with three planned holes remaining.
Significant rock-chip values from newly-identified epithermal veins at the Cerro Verde prospect include 14.95g/t gold and 40.4g/t silver, 13.65g/t gold and 136g/t silver and 11.35g/t gold and 14.75g/t silver.
Once drilling at Cerro Verde is knocked over, the second rig will mobilise at Papayal, which represents a high-grade part of the 9km, sparsely drill-tested epithermal corridor at Dynasty. The company expects both resource drilling campaigns to be finished before the end of the year, with a mineral resource update planned for early next year.
This is only the second drilling campaign that the Company has directed towards Papayal. A modest drilling campaign completed in 2021 demonstrated the high-grade nature of mineralisation at Papayal, and current resource grades for the prospect are 4.5 g/t Au and 50 g/t Ag. Titan Minerals chief executive officer Melanie Leighton
In July, Titan unveiled a maiden mineral resource at Dynasty of 43.54 million tonnes at 2.23g/t gold and 15.7g/t silver for a sizeable 3.12 million gold ounces and 21.98 million ounces of silver, with nearly 40 per cent already in the higher-confidence “indicated” status. Dynasty also contains a high-grade component of 17.3 million tonnes grading 3.77g/t gold and 24g/t silver for a contained 2.09 million gold ounces and 13.33 million ounces of silver.
The project is an advanced-stage exploration play in the Loja Province of southern Ecuador, comprising five concessions totalling 139 square kilometres. It includes three concessions that received environmental authorisation in early 2016 and which are fully-permitted for exploration and small-scale mining.
Last month, the company revealed it was planning follow-up drilling to test potential lateral and depth extensions of a 2km-diameter geophysical anomaly at its Copper Ridge and Meseta prospects in Ecuador, where it believes it may be sitting on a significant porphyry deposit at its Linderos project.
Management says it plans to drill its newly-defined porphyry system early next year.
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