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Bastion Minerals rock chip sampling confirms widespread surface gold mineralisation at Capote in Chile

Last updated: 15:21 16 Apr 2021 AEST, First published: 12:54 16 Apr 2021 AEST

Bastion Minerals Ltd -
The Capote Gold Project consists of around 77 square kilometres of granted mining and exploration tenements surrounding the historic San Juan Gold Mine

Bastion Minerals Ltd's (ASX:BMO) first assays from a rock chip sample campaign at the flagship Capote Gold Project in the mineral-rich Atacama mining region of Northern Chile has confirmed widespread surface gold mineralisation.

The campaign, which was designed to obtain high-density surface rock chip data along strike of historical mining areas, returned numerous high-grade results across the 100%-owned licences at Capote, with the average gold grade of the 157 samples being 1.73 g/t gold and a maximum of 16.45 g/t.

When combined with historic rocks chips and alteration mapping, the results support the view that the broader gold system extends over a strike length of more than 2.5 kilometres.

“Hugely positive”

Executive director Ross Landles said: “This is a significant development at our Capote Project.

“This phase of detailed rock chip sampling focused on extensional structures controlling high-grade gold mineralisation at the historical San Juan Gold Mine.

“It is hugely positive that this new work confirms that the regional structures that control high-grade gold mineralisation extend to the south and into our mining licence.

“Our in-country exploration team has done a tremendous job identifying the Yayito area as a high priority target, and we are encouraged by the extensive surface exposure of mineralised vein, which appears to be continuous with the historical mine at San Juan.”

Initial focus on Yayito area

There were 49 samples that returned grades above 1 g/t gold with 27 samples above 2 g/t and eight above 5 g/t.

The company believes that it is important to note the consistency in grade along strike of the veins.

Close up of the Yayito and Taquia Areas showing recent rock-chip results.

Initial focus has been on the Yayito area, where the mineralisation is consistent with a possible epithermal or high-level intrusion-related gold system.

This data will provide focus for trenching and drilling and is designed to highlight the areas most likely to host larger, high-grade gold deposits.

Reconnaissance rock chip sampling and mapping within Capote Project is ongoing.

Other areas

Samples were collected from several areas identified from satellite imagery and alteration mapping.

There were 38 samples collected in areas outside Yayito and the average grade of these samples was 2.63 g/t with a maximum of 16.45 g/t.

Seventeen samples were above 1 g/t, 14 above 2g/t gold and eight above 5g/t gold.

Of note is an area around 1-kilometre southeast of Yayito where eight rock chips were collected.

Second field campaign

The objective of the second field campaign at Capote is to step out into the broader region and test for a mix of targets (gold-silver-copper-lead-zinc).

Historic rock-chipping at Capote has suggested there is potential for iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) and silver-lead-zinc deposits.

To ensure that this potential is assessed early in the project life, 25% of the initial work at Capote will involve these target types.

There have been 111 channel and rock-chip samples collected to date in the second campaign and these are being processed by ALS in Chile.

Assay results are expected in late April or early May.

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