Altiplano Metals Inc. (TSXV: APN) has unveiled plans for Phase 1 of an initial surface work programme at the company’s newly acquired Pastillas gold exploration project, located within the prolific Maricunga Gold Belt in the Atacama region of northern Chile.
Planned work activities include bedrock lithology and alteration mapping and an extensive short-wave infrared spectroscopy (SWIR) programme over the southern portion of the property to target epithermal and porphyry related alteration and mineralisation.
President and CEO, Alastair McIntyre, said initial review of historical data suggests that older, altered rocks exposed within late volcanics in the southern portion of the property represent a high-level expression of potential epithermal and/or porphyry mineralization.
“The Maricunga Gold Belt is one the most identifiable gold districts in Chile, and we are very excited to begin our exploration program at Pastillias,” Mr McIntyre said.
“Our work at Pastillas dovetails with the Company’s strategy of developing near term cash flowing assets while also focusing on large scale exploration projects with the potential of identifying significant mineral resources.”
He said the mapping and SWIR programs will enhance Altiplano’s understanding of the alteration systems identified in historical ASTER data and help characterise the alteration footprint. This work will assist with defining drill targets for Phase 2 of the exploration program. The planned exploration work involves:
SWIR
- SWIR is used to identify important alteration minerals associated with specific temperature and pH environments, making it an ideal exploration tool for vectoring in epithermal and porphyry deposit exploration.
- The Company has planned a high-density SWIR grid (up to 4,000 sample sites) covering approximately 6 km2 of the 30 km2 project area over two historical ASTER anomalies
Mapping
- Altiplano will complete extensive alteration and bedrock lithology mapping over the southern portion of the property that will follow up on limited historical work that identified evidence of advanced argillic and steam-heated type alteration, indicative of epithermal and porphyry systems.
Altiplano has generated greater than US$7.2 million from the recovery and sale of approximately 3.6 million pounds of copper with an average grade of 1.74% Cu (2018 Q1-2021 Q3). Cash flow has been re-invested into equipment, underground drilling, expanding underground development, enhancing ventilation to increase productivity and capacity, and the commencement of the permitted El Peñón fit-for-purpose mill and flotation plant located 15 km from the Farellon site.
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