Oro Verde (ASX: OVL), formally Ezenet (ASX: EZE), aims to acquire two prospective copper and gold prospects in Chile.
The Chuminga project is in the coastal area of northern Chile which hosts highly prospective copper mines such as Mantos Blancos, Chuquicamata and Escondida. The Vega project is located in Chile's prolific El Indio Gold Belt which has had discoveries in excess of 50 million ounces of gold and 900 million ounces of silver.
Oro Verde kicks off gold drilling at Vega, accelerated by good ground conditions
Oro Verde (ASX: OVL), formerly Ezenet, is rapidly advancing its first phase 8-hole, 2,500 metre drilling program at the Vega Gold Project due to good ground conditions and the vertical nature of the first few holes.
The first two holes have intersected highly altered sulphidic diorite porphyry.
Oro Verde began a reverse circulation drilling program at the Vega Project in the El Indio Gold belt following the completion of drill road access to selected sites to test geochemical anomalies with strong alteration associated with an untested epithermal gold system.
Three holes have been drilled so far with a fourth hole now at 60 metres depth. The first hole in the Sancarron River Valley had to be abandoned prematurely at 11 metres because of high ground water flows.
The second and third holes higher up on the valley side, collared in strong alteration, were terminated at 152 metres and 196 metres respectively.
Both holes have been logged and the individual 1 metre drill intervals are currently being subject to preliminary multi-elemental analysis in the field by a hand held Brunker S1 Turbo XRF before being dispatched to Activation Laboratories in Coquimbo for confirmatory analyses.
The Vega Project comprises 10 gold Exploration Concessions covering 28 kilometres in the El Indio Gold Belt, a region that has seen the discovery of about 50 million ounces of gold and 900 million ounces of silver resources primarily by Barrick Gold Corporation, the dominant miner in the region.
Vega is located 20 kilometres north of El Indio, which produced 4.5 million ounces of gold, 25 million ounces of silver and 472,000 tonnes of copper from underground and open pit operations in its 23 year life.
Chuminga Copper-Gold Project
Drilling operations at Chuminga have been slow due to various mechanical problems, but these matters have been remedied and drilling is progressing.
The first and current core hole at Chuminga is drilling ahead in well-developed copper and iron oxide mineralisation in a gabbro-diorite breccia as predicted. To date some 50 metres of mineralisation has been intersected.
Executive chairman Wolf Martinick said the intersection of well-developed copper and iron oxide mineralisation at Chuminga in a gabbro-diorite breccia as predicted is encouraging.
“We expect the first phase drilling program to confirm the potential of the mineralisation at Chuminga and to provide an exploration data base to proceed to develop a significant JORC compliant copper-gold resource,” he said.
Successful Transition
Oro Verde began trading on the ASX at 10am last Friday after a successful transition to a gold and copper focused explorer in Chile.
The company is currently trading near to its entry price of A$0.20 share, with the last traded price $0.18.
Oro Verde has some highly prospective bulk tonnage projects, including Chuminga with an exploration target of 50 to 60 million tonnes of between 1% and 1.1% copper, 0.3 to 0.4 grams per tonne gold and 0.5 to 1% zinc, suitable for bulk mining.
The company recently raised around A$2.4 million to assist in the development of its Chilean projects.
