Diamond Drilling Progressing At Cerro Verde
Titan Minerals Limited (ASX: TTM) has unveiled details of a range of exploration activities across three of the company’s exploration projects located in the Loja province of southern Ecuador.
“Ecuador visiting our portfolio of assets, I’m excited by what I have seen and the progress we are making. We have a very prospective package of assets and I’m extremely pleased with our in-country operations team and the progress they have made to date,” Managing Director, Laurie Marsland, said.
“Their work is first class. Of particular interest is the work being undertaken at Linderos which indicates the presence of a significant copper porphyry system.
“During my visit I met with the Minister of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources and the Minister of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition who are supportive of responsible mining and development of Ecuador’s mining industry. In our opinion the Ecuadorian mining industry has a bright future.”
Titan’s flagship, Dynasty Gold Project is located 25km north of the Peruvian border and hosts a foreign resource estimate totalling 2.1Moz Au averaging 4.5g/t gold. Diamond drilling is ongoing to support an impending JORC Compliant update to the resource estimate.
Following the completion of drilling at Dynasty’s Iguana and Papayal prospect areas which provided key structural information for modelling and assessing continuity of mineralisation, Titan is now progressing a 12,000m diamond drilling campaign over the Cerro Verde Prospect.
Diamond drilling using two man-portable drill rigs commenced at the Cerro Verde Prospect during May. A third diamond drill rig has been mobilised to site and is now operational. To date, 12 diamond holes have been completed while the next 3 holes are underway. Over 2,000m have been drilled at the Dynasty Gold Project in the past weeks. It is anticipated that a fourth diamond drill rig will be mobilised to site this month.
Drilling to date has focused on the eastern extent of the Cerro Verde prospect, sampling a corridor of mineralisation known as the Gordo and Foto veins, which were exposed in shallow pits mined in 2019-2020. Open pit mining also exposed several additional veins not identified in historical surface sampling activity. The veins targeted represent approximately 120,000oz of gold and 1.4Moz of silver in the previous estimation.
The work programme includes a combination of in-fill and extension drilling targeting 80m sample spacing along strike. Drilling and ongoing surface channel sampling is expected to provide the additional structural data required to improve modelling on a mineralised vein array that is demonstrating to be more complex in geometry and has a higher density of veining than previously modelled.
The third drill rig mobilised to site is operational at the Brecha–Comanche vein zone located in the southern part of the Cerro Verde Prospect. Located within 10m to 40m of each other, both veins are included in the existing resource and host large gold mineralised structures. Exploration conducted by Titan consisted of resampling Brecha-Comanche vein zone mineralisation.
Extensive additional geologic mapping and surface sampling has been initiated in the Cerro Verde Prospect area. Field activities include channel sampling of vein exposure in open pits and sampling on outcropping vein zones. To date, 125 channel samples have been collected and are pending assay results. Channel sampling and trench activity will continue during the drilling campaign, along with surface mapping and geologic review of updated geology interpretations that are based on recently acquired airborne magnetic and radiometric datasets over the Dynasty Project.
Copper Duke and Linderos Regional Geology
Copper Duke Project and Linderos Project are both host to gold-copper porphyry related systems, associated with significant epithermal style gold mineralisation potential. Located 18km east, and 20km south of the Dynasty gold project respectively, the three projects are in proximity to each other which provides substantial operational synergies for exploration activity.
Following completion of a high-resolution geophysical survey, Titan continues to build systematic exploration datasets with follow-up geochemistry surveys focused on areas of prospective geology. A total of 712 soil samples have been collected, extending surface geochemistry coverage a further 12 sq. km north within the 130 sq. km project area, hosting multiple clusters of intrusive centres defined in aerial magnetics.
At Linderos, the ongoing review of the historical information, existing drill-core, and reconnaissance field observations have highlighted the presence of widespread Copper and Molybdenum anomalism haloed by a significant footprint of quartz stockworks and porphyry related alterations covering an area > three sq. km at the target within the Linderos Project known as the Copper Ridge Prospect. Copper ridge is centered on quartz-diorite and dacite porphyry intrusions that are approximately one km in diameter, and likely part of the most prolific Miocene metallogenic belt in the Andes.
At the northern and eastern margins of the porphyry target, sizable argillic to advance argillic alteration zones associated with high-grade gold mineralisation have been mapped, including several features suggesting the presence of an intermediate to high-sulphidation epithermal gold system at the area traditionally known as the Linderos Gold Prospect.
For more information visit https://www.titanminerals.com.au/
