Antilles Gold Ltd (ASX:AAU, OTCQB:ANTMF) has wrapped up a preliminary drilling program on the El Pilar copper-gold porphyry project and its overlying copper-gold oxide deposit in central Cuba, intersecting what it believes to be oxide and sulphide mineralisation from visual observations.
Six drill holes have been collared along 300 metres of strike of the El Pilar porphyry copper-gold oxide exposure and have tested both the high-grade gold domain and the lower leached copper domain. Three short partial holes were redrilled due to hitting voids.
Additionally, all the drill holes continued into fresh rock where porphyry-style hydrothermal alteration, veining and copper sulphide mineralisation were encountered in varying amounts, representing the outer mineralised halo of a prospective copper-gold porphyry system.
The drill holes indicated continuous gold mineralisation from near surface to about 40 metres downhole in the upper gold domain dominated by iron oxides after primary sulphides, and then about 45 metres of oxide copper mineralisation in the underlying copper domain that is almost entirely composed of secondary chalcocite and lesser chalcopyrite.
Drilling totalled 1,797 metres and was undertaken to validate historic drilling as well as to test for underlying porphyry copper-gold mineralisation related to the surficial oxide copper-gold mineralisation.
Assays will not start to be received until later this month but visual observation of the drilled cores is highly encouraging for both oxide and sulphide mineralisation.
Visual confidence
The company’s exploration director Dr Christian Grainger believes that all of the preliminary drill holes have penetrated the outer zone of a copper-gold porphyry system.
Based on the size of the surface expression, the presence of primary sulphide copper-gold mineralisation at depth, and a previous aeromagnetic survey, he is confident that the El Pilar oxide deposit is the surficial expression of a copper-gold porphyry system.
Exploration director Dr Christian Grainger inspecting drill core.
Next steps
Grainger has arranged for ground magnetics and induced polarization surveys over a 3-kilometre by 2-kilometre area to generate drill hole targets for a staged 15,000-metre program next year.
A separate 7,000-metre shallow program will be undertaken on the oxide cap commencing the first quarter of 2023.
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