Zacapa Resources (TSXV: ZACA) has completed its inaugural drill campaign at its 100% owned Red Top Porphyry copper exploration project in the Superior Mining district, eight km northwest of Rio Tinto/BHP’s Resolution development project in Arizona.
Highlights
- Original two to three hole, 3,000 m drill programme expanded to six drillholes and over 5,000 m following encouraging drill results, executed safely with zero LTI’s, within budget and on time
- Assays from holes RT-21-001 and RT-22-002 support visual observations of elevated copper concentrations in a distal porphyry alteration assemblage
- In accordance with the exploration plan, Zacapa is transitioning to drilling the South Bullfrog project while awaiting final results and interpretation from the Red Top drill campaign ZACAF
Initial drilling at the Red Top project has revealed an exciting new discovery of a quartz monzonite porphyry intrusive cut by copper-bearing veins occurring in association with low-temperate quartz-sericite-pyrite (QSP) alteration.
This style of QSP alteration is consistent with alteration peripheral to the centre of a porphyry copper intrusive system and is typically low in overall copper grade. Thus the observations from RT-21-001 displaying copper-bearing veins in association with a distal alteration assemblage are encouraging, especially considering that the Resolution copper deposit eight km southeast displays copper-rich zones within its QSP alteration halo.
Based on this early success the planned two to three hole, 3,000 m drill programme was rapidly expanded to six holes and 5,000 m. The final two holes RT-22-005 (920 m) and RT-22-006 (817 m) were completed in April and May respectively. This expansion of the drill program was done in conjunction with additional staking, geologic mapping, hyperspectral remote sensing, and airborne magnetic and MT geophysical surveys to aid in vectoring towards the core of the intrusive system.
Porphyry style veins, predominantly with similar QSP alteration assemblages were encountered over significant thicknesses in each drill hole with varying abundance of veins containing copper, lead, zinc, and molybdenum sulphide minerals. Assay results from RT-21-001 and RT-22-002 have been received and confirm the presence of elevated Cu, Pb, Zn, Mo, Au, and Ag within discrete vein sets, although none of the intercepts are considered to be ore grade x width intercepts that would be considered economically significant.
The presence of copper-sulphides within the distal QSP alteration assemblage is an encouraging similarity to the mineral system at Resolution. Assays from the remaining four drill holes are pending and the full incorporation of all the new data sets is in progress.
“The technical team has done an excellent job of rapidly expanding the scope at Red Top to fully evaluate the potential of this project and maximize our time with the available drill rig. We tested a 1.5 × 1.1 × 0.9 km area and encountered veining and alteration throughout and are looking forward to integrating the abundance of new data we have available and planning the next phase of work at Red Top,” company spokesperson, Adam Melnik, said.
“The team has already begun transitioning to focus on our upcoming drill program at our South Bullfrog project while we wait for final results and interpretation of the Red Top drill campaign.”
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