Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX:STM) continues to deliver high-grade gold-silver results from outside the current resource and exploration target areas at the Limon discovery, supporting the strategy to establish higher-grade open pits within a targeted 10-million-ounce project at Bramaderos in southern Ecuador.
The latest assays, including 42 metres at 3.9 g/t gold equivalent from 152 metres, demonstrate that Limon is a major shallow discovery that will help underpin the next resource update.
These results continue to show the presence of structurally controlled high-grade gold-silver mineralisation within an extensive halo of lower-grade mineralisation.
Major shallow high-grade discovery
Sunstone managing director Malcolm Norris said: “These results show that Limon is now clearly a major shallow high-grade gold-silver discovery which will underpin a significant increase in the scale, grade and development prospects for Bramaderos.
“We remain highly confident that our strategy to establish higher-grade open pits at Limon as the first stage of a wider development plan at Bramaderos is well on track.
“The higher-grade central shoot, as defined in holes LMDD030, 017 & 026, extends from the surface to at least 300 metres deep and is open in all directions along significant structures.
“The results from LMDD029 give us great confidence that these structures, which lead towards the shoot, are also well mineralised in their own right, and expand the scale of the system.
“We have also reassessed previous drilling at Limon which was undertaken by Sunstone in 2019 to 2022."
Limon epithermal drill section.
Results summary
Recent drill results, and a review of previous drilling, provide more compelling evidence that Limon is a significant high-grade gold-silver discovery with mineralisation extending from the surface to considerable depth and remains open in all directions.
The latest intersections include those from LMDD030 of 42 metres at 3.9 g/t gold equivalent (3.37 g/t gold and 43.3 g/t silver) from 152 metres within 243 metres at 1.32 g/t gold equivalent from 46 metres.
Norris said: “This drilling (at the time) was aimed at porphyry targets and intersected very extensive halo porphyry mineralisation in holes LMDD002, LMDD004 and LMDD007.
“Reappraisal has identified a number of deep and narrow epithermal intersections overprinting the outer porphyry halo, which greatly expand the potential scale of the Limon epithermal opportunity.
“For example, hole LMDD002 intersected an epithermal vein delivering 0.25 metres at 2.2 g/t gold, 43 g/t silver and 1.9% copper, at a depth of 890 metres downhole.
“This suggests that the Limon epithermal system that is currently being drilled may have roots that are very extensive to depth.
“Ongoing positive results from Limon will allow us to grow the resource base at Bramaderos and focus on higher-grade open pits as an early development opportunity.
“As we continue to drill at Bramaderos we remain confident that we can deliver the 10-million-ounce district across multiple deposits within ~4 kilometres of one another”.
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