Three Rigs Confirmatory Programme In Ecuador
Titan Minerals Limited (ASX: TTM) has commenced a confirmatory drilling programme at the Dynasty Gold Project located in southern Ecuador.
Managing Director, Laurie Marsland, said the first of three diamond drill rigs is well underway on an initial programme designed to better understand the geologic controls on gold mineralisation for the current foreign resource totalling 2.1Moz averaging 4.5g/t gold.
Additional geological data, including the first oriented core drilling for the project and logging of historical diamond core will underpin a maiden 3D geology model for the project. Oriented core was not generated for previous drilling but will be during the current programme.
Oriented core will enable definition of vein geometries for incorporation into the new geologic model, that will enable completion of a resource estimate using a geostatistical method of mineral resource estimation, for reporting in compliance with the JORC Code.
“This current phase of drilling is an important step towards further advancing and confirming Dynasty as a significant gold project within Ecuador,” Mr Marsland said.
“Current drilling, leading to a JORC compliant resource update is a key catalyst for adding value to and bringing a higher standard of technical stewardship to the project.
“More importantly, defining key controls on the mineralisation will enhance the probability of expanding the resource footprint.
“Initial drill testing of outcropping gold mineralisation and substantial step-out drilling along zones of known mineralisation that disappear under shallow cover, is required to assess the potential for substantial resource growth in the next phases of drilling.”
Planned drilling and ongoing core sampling programmes of historical drill core archives, are focused on conversion of the substantial foreign resource reported under Canadian NI 43-101 requirements to a JORC Code compliant resource estimate. The mineral resource update willl be underpinned by the results of current exploration activities.
The emphasis of drill targeting will be to collect vein and contact measurements from oriented core to better define vein orientations and geometries of the multiple vein sets within the project area. A revised geological and structural model for the gold mineralisation at the Dynasty Gold Project will be completed over the coming months.
The programme of logging core from the drilling programme at Dynasty during 2019 is nearing completion and further assay results are pending analyses. Concurrent with this work, Titan has commenced re- logging and sampling material previously not sampled that is outside and adjacent to the veins identified and sampled in the original 201 diamond drill holes which total 26,734 metres of diamond drill core. Signifcant progress has been made in building the first integrated database that will provide a better understanding of the structure and geology of the Dynasty project. Meanwhile, a geophysical survey crew has mobilised to commence a high resolution magnetic and radiometric survey over both the Dynasty and Copper Duke project areas. The helicopter borne survey is to be completed over the next 3 to 4 weeks, with final reporting expected 30 days thereafter.
