Challenger Exploration (ASX: CEL) has further extended the high-grade mineralisation at the Hualilan Gold Project in San Juan Province in Argentina.
Managing Director, Kris Knauer, said results from the latest three drill holes at Hualilan all encountered near surface high-grade gold mineralisation and extended the high-grade results a further 500 metres south along strike
The latest three drill holes were located on the Cerro Sur section of the Hualilan Gold Project. CEL has the right to earn 75% of the Hualilan Gold Project, comprising 15 granted mining licences and an exploration licence application covering the surrounding 26sq. km.
Challenger’s initial 2,000m drilling programme at Hualilan was initially designed to comprise of two 1000m sub- campaigns separated by four to six weeks. The first campaign was expanded to 10 holes for approximately 1500m based on the encouraging mineralisation visible throughout the majority of holes.
Mr Knauer said the company now intends to extend the second half of the programme similarly based on the results for these first 10 holes.
“We are delighted with these results from our Hualilan Gold Project. The project continues to surprise on the upside. All holes returned intercepts well above the grade of the historical foreign resource and importantly each significantly extended the known mineralisation.
“Of note is hole GNDD-009 which was somewhat of a wildcat hole designed to test the southern extension of the historical resource. Only two of 188 holes have been drilled further south.
“This hole encountering 10.3 metres of high-grade gold mineralisation was a pleasant surprise and it significantly upgrades the entire southern end of the project.”
High-grade results from the latest assays included 10.3m at 12.9 g/t AuEq – 10.4 g/t Gold, 28 g/t Silver, 4.6% Zinc, including 4.2m at 21.9 g/t Gold, 58 g/t Silver, 8.7% Zinc from 115 metres; 2.6m at 25.5 g/t AuEq – 22.8 g/t Gold, 218 g/t Silver, 0.7% Zinc; and 3.0m at 20.5 g/t AuEq – 17.7 g/t Gold, 143 g/t Silver, 2.5% Zinc,
Mr Knauer said results from the first seven drill holes in the current programme have extended the existing mineralisation in multiple directions, comparing favourably to the average historical drill intercept (at Hualilan of 2.6m at 10.0 g/t gold, 36 g/t silver and 2.7% zinc and the historical resource grade of 13.7 g/t gold equivalent.
