NGEx Resources has reported a copper-gold discovery at its Nacimientos exploration project in the Argentine province of San Juan following an initial scout drilling.
Image: Map showing location of Nacimientos project. Photo: courtesy of NGEx Resources Inc.
The Canadian mineral exploration company said that initial drilling at Nacimientos yielded encouraging copper-gold results.
According to NGEx, the Nacimientos Project is a district-scale land package that is spread across nearly 15,000 hectares. Nacimientos covers more than six distinct porphyry copper-gold and epithermal gold targets, said the miner.
It is located about 80km south of Barrick Gold’s Veladero Mine. Nacimientos is also within a possible extension of the El Indio-Veladero gold belt that hosts past production and current resources of over 50 million ounces of gold.
NGEx completed three diamond drill holes at Nacimientos, which provided an initial test of three out of six target areas that were identified earlier in the year. Out of these, the NADH001 and NADH003 holes confirmed the presence of extensive porphyry copper-gold mineralization associated with an open ended 4x2km copper-gold anomaly, said the miner.
On the other hand, a third hole, NADH002, proved the presence of epithermal alteration below unaltered cover rocks. The three scout holes evaluated multi-kilometre scale targets and were planned to prove geological concepts and were not definitive tests, said NGEx.
The company said that it is looking to launch further drilling based on the initial success, with an objective to better define the zones. It will also evaluate more than three other targets in the project in what will be a phase 2 program, which is slated to commence later in the year.
NGEx president and CEO Wojtek Wodzicki said: “We are very encouraged by these early results from Nacimientos. This was a quick, end-of-season drill program designed as an initial test of geological concepts which has now confirmed the presence of a significant porphyry copper gold system and a large epithermal system under younger cover rocks.
“The encouraging results at Nacimientos are an important first step that will guide further exploration that we expect will lead us into the core of the system.”