Metminco Limited (ASX:MNC) (LON:MNC) (FRA:M9K) gained 25% during intraday trading this morning after revealing drillers were on site at its Chuscal gold target at Quinchia Gold Project in Colombia.
The company appointed familiar contractor Logan Drilling as its driller for the expansive surface gold anomaly at Quinchia project.
Quinchia has a defined reserve of 457,000 ounces and a resource of 877,000 ounces.
Contractor Logan has previously worked for Metminco and its new subsidiary Andes Resources Limited and has begun activities on-site at Chuscal.
Logan’s activities over the coming days will include assessing site access, and setting water and logistics management strategies as it prepares to diamond drill up to 2,400 metres in one week.
Metminco managing director Jason Stirbinskis said today: “We are glad that Logan Drilling was able to provide a competitive bid as they have previously provided drilling services to both Andes Resources and Metminco and demonstrated themselves to be professional, reliable and aligned to our policy of buy local, hire local and employ local.”
An expanded company
Melbourne and Columbia-based Metminco bought up unlisted company Andes in an all-scrip takeover in mid-August 2019.
The reverse takeover was supported by Andes’ largest shareholder Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) and was touted as providing the unlisted play a swifter pathway to becoming a developer by advancing Metminco’s Quinchia project.
Chuscal a “compelling” way forward
Field mapping and ground magnetic programs are still underway at Chuscal, a target the newly-merged company views as “compelling.”
Last week Stirbinskis told the market: “Chuscal has some unique qualities when compared to other porphyry type mineralisation in the regional porphyry cluster in that it is overprinted by
“It is the second mineralisation event, the over-printing of epithermal veins, that makes Chuscal so compelling as higher-grade veins within a backdrop of porphyry gold mineralisation have a good chance of producing substantial high-grade gold zones.”
Drill campaign plans
Drilling will be undertaken in two phases, with drill holes to be about 300-400 metres deep.
The first phase of drilling will take in three holes, with the company planning to use results from its intersections to plan out the second phase of drilling.
The company reported today that while its in-progress field mapping and ground magnetic programs could change Logan’s drill program, the first hole drillers would target would test Chuscal close to the surface and aim to intersect a Guayacanes structure.
Guayacanes is a diorite that features gold-bearing veins within a mineralised diorite porphyry.
Historical channel sampling of underground workings of Guayacanes veins delivered gold grades of up to 250 g/t in 120 channel samples about 2-metre long.
Ten per cent of samples had grades of more than 10 g/t, with the average grade being 62.7 g/t.
The higher gold grades were found in two or three vein systems that had elevated silver grades of up to 59 g/t and also featured arsenic, antinomy, tungsten and tellurium.
Continuous lower grades of 1 to 3.9 g/t were found in gold cross-cuts between the veins.
Future drilling will also target an epithermal level, magmatic breccia known as Tres Cuevas about 200 metres below surface.
Metminco securities were up 0.5 c, or 25%, to 0.25 cents by lunchtime today.
