Titan Minerals Ltd (ASX:TTM) has begun a resource growth drilling program at its Papayal Prospect, situated within the Dynasty Gold Project in Southern Ecuador.
The drilling, which comprises 24 holes across 2,650 metres is designed to target high-grade and high-margin gold resource growth.
This follows the recent mapping and surface geochemical sampling which was successful in expanding the epithermal gold vein footprint well beyond existing defined resources at Papayal.
The Papayal prospect represents a high-grade part of the Dynasty’s 9-kilometre epithermal corridor, which until now has been sparsely drill tested, hence representing a high-priority area for resource growth.
Meanwhile, resource growth drilling continues to advance at the Cerro Verde prospect with a further seven holes completed and awaiting results.
"Defining additional high-grade, high-margin ounces"
Titan CEO Melanie Leighton said: “We are excited to have commenced resource growth in the north of the Dynasty Project at the Papayal Prospect.
“We will have one diamond rig in operation at Papayal and a second rig at the Cerro Verde Prospect area in the South of the Dynasty Project.
“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 gold and 50 g/t silver (reported >0.5 g/t gold).
“Drilling is aimed at defining additional high-grade, high-margin ounces, with a focus on identifying shallow mineralisation to add to the existing resource inventory of 3.1 million ounces of gold and 22 million ounces of silver.
“We continue to advance mapping and surface geochemical work programs across the broader Dynasty Project area and continue to identify new areas of mineralisation that expand the overall scope of the Project.”
Drilling at Cerro Verde
A second drill rig is currently in operation at the Cerro Verde prospect.
To date, seven diamond drillholes across 787 metres have been completed, with three holes remaining for the 2023 resource growth drilling.
Results for these holes are pending, however, the company is encouraged by visual observations which indicate the potential for multiple mineralised veins.
Drill rig at Cerro Verde prospect
Forward plan
Once drilling is completed at Cerro Verde, the rig will mobilise to Papayal.
The company anticipates that the Cerro Verde and Papayal drilling campaigns will be completed by year-end, and a resource update is planned for the March quarter of 2024 following receipt of all results.
The company looks forward to providing further updates as results are received.
About Dynasty
The Dynasty Gold Project is an advanced-stage exploration project comprising five contiguous concessions and is 139 square kilometres in area.
Three of these concessions received environmental authorisation in 2016 and are fully permitted for all exploration activities.
Exploration works at the Dynasty Gold Project have outlined an extensive zone of epithermal veining over a nine-kilometre strike and one kilometre in width.
There is also considerable potential for porphyry gold, silver and copper mineralisation as identified by surface mapping, trenching and drilling at the Kaliman Porphyry prospect.
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