Australian mining company Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX:STM) has followed up drilling at the Limon epithermal target of the Bramaderos gold and copper project in Ecuador, confirming the presence of a new gold-silver system outside the current resource boundary and exploration target zone.
The company says the drilling program’s results strengthen the evidence for a potentially significant gold-silver-base metal discovery from surface at Limon, with very broad results of up to 92 metres at 0.58% gold equivalent recorded.
Sunstone believes the target consists of several west-northwest trending mineralised structures of more than 300 metres in length, with several more targets waiting to be drilled within a 1.7-kilometre by 700-metre gold-in-soil anomaly at Limon.
Grades exceed current mineral resource
“These latest results continue to expand the Limon epithermal gold-silver-base metal system beyond the initial discovery hole LMDD017 that intersected 176.7 metres at 1.1g/t gold equivalent from 6.8 metres of depth,” Sunstone Metals managing director Malcom Norris said.
“The drilling is delivering shallow and overall higher grades than the existing Bramaderos mineral resource estimate and exploration target.
“These results further underpin our plan to grow the resource base and assess development options which may include higher-grade starter pits and supports our view that Bramaderos has every potential to be a 10-million-ounce district with multiple deposits within 4 kilometres of one another.
The company is confident it can deliver more upside with further drilling, having identified several sub-parallel zones of mineralisation that appear to have “considerable vertical extent.”
“Our broader Limon target gold in soil anomaly is 1.7 kilometres long by up to 700 metres wide, and together with multiple areas of zinc anomalism, a possible pathfinder, will be drill tested over the coming months.
“We are undertaking further metallurgical studies which are looking at both leach and float opportunities, and we are very encouraged by preliminary results.”
With drilling ongoing, three additional holes (LMDD023-025) are in for assay with LMDD026 currently being logged and LMDD027 being drilled.
The Bram-Alba mineral resource estimate sits at 156 million tonnes at 0.53 g/t gold equivalent at present, for 2.7 million ounces of gold equivalent.
The Bramaderos Project’s exploration target – which Limon is not included in – has been estimated at 3.3 million ounces to 8.6 million ounces gold equivalent at a grade between 0.40 g/t and 0.74 g/t gold equivalent.