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‘...These results further confirm Pantanillo’s credentials as a large-scale gold system...’
Flagship Minerals managing director, Paul LockPantanillo sits at the heart of the Chilean Maricunga gold belt, a neighbourhood rich with multi-million-ounce gold deposits. The belt features more than 65 million ounces of gold, anchored by Newmont-Barrick’s 27-million-ounce Norte Abierto mine 40km southwest of Pantanillo. Kinross’s 10.7-million-ounce Maricunga project lies 25km west, and Hochschild’s 11-million-ounce Volcan deposit is just 10km northwest of Flagship’s project.
The 110-square-kilometre project area holds an array of geophysical targets linked to magnetite and pyrite that light up under magnetic surveying techniques. Recent groundwork has flagged strong oxide gold along strike north and south of Pantanillo Central, while major alteration zones have emerged at Pantanillo Norte to the northwest.
Flagship initially concentrated on the historical drillhole data to expedite the preparation of a JORC compliant mineral resource estimate for the project. However, now other data is also being assessed, including the soil sampling conducted by previous explorers amounting to over 1500 samples. These were mostly collected by Kinross Gold in 2006 along with some additional sampling by Orosur Mining in 2010. The majority of samples were collected in the Pantanillo North and Pantanillo Central prospects, with smaller grids at other prospects.
Company geologists modelled gold and other elements and plotted these as heat maps. The modelled gold-in-soils data shows a large zone of anomalous gold broadly centred on Pantanillo North, trending approximately NW-SE, parallel to the deposit.
The takeaway message is the size of the gold in soil anomaly is much larger than the existing drill coverage which currently defines the deposit. However, additional drilling is required to fully test this potential.
Flagship’s overlying strategy for Pantanillo is to define sufficient ounces to support project development consisting of open pit mining and heap leach processing, with a target of producing 100,000oz of gold per year for at least 10 years.
Work by the company is now focussing on converting and expanding the existing “Qualifying Foreign Estimates” (QFE) resource into a Mineral Resource Estimate reported in accordance with the Australian JORC Code (2012). This will include validating existing drill data and Flagship is confident this will lead to an increase of the existing mineral resource without new drilling.
The company also plans to use the fresh data to supercharge the project’s metallurgical and feasibility credentials, with the numbers already stacking up nicely. Metallurgical test work and project studies will run in parallel with ongoing technical and permitting studies.
Flagship believes there is significant additional exploration potential for both oxide and higher-grade sulphide mineralisation throughout the broader 110km halo to the Pantanillo Gold Project, which could add serious ounces to the project.
If the incoming data lives up to expectation, Pantanillo could become one of the speediest gold resource growth stories of the year. With the gold price reaching another fresh high today, trading above $US40000 for the first time, Flagship’s reworking of Pantanillo data could prove golden.
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