Aldebaran drills 0.48% CuEq over 1,167.5 metres at Altar, Argentina
Aldebaran Resources Inc. [ALDE-TSXV; ADBRF-OTCQX] reported additional results from two holes at its continuing drilling campaign at the Altar copper-gold project in San Juan province, Argentina.
Hole ALD-22-222 was drilled in an area with no previous drilling and was designed to test a favourable geophysical signature coincident with a strong, multi-element talus fines geochemical anomaly at surface. Drill hole ALD-22-222 was terminated at 1,226.00 metres depth. Hole ALD-22-223 represents a 500-metre step-out from previously drilled hole ALD-22-221 and was designed to test a geophysical anomaly in an area of favourable geological and geochemical information gleaned from nearby shallow drilling. Hole ALD-22-223 was terminated at 1,287.50 metres depth. The company notes that its CuEq formula has changed from previous press releases and that the updated CuEq formula incorporates estimated recoveries for all reported commodities.
Highlights: Drill hole ALD-22-223 returned 1,167.50 metres of 0.48% CuEq from 120 metres depth, including 418.00 metres of 0.67% CuEq from 848 metres depth. The hole ended in mineralization.
ALD-22-222 returned 25.30 metres of 0.40% CuEq from 196.70 metres depth; 48.00 metres of 0.27% CuEq from 248 metres depth and 378.00 mettres of 0.46% CuEq from 848 metres depth. The hole ended in mineralization.
John Black, CEO, commented: “Any time you intersect over a kilometre of good-grade mineralization, it’s exciting. In the case of hole 223, it’s very encouraging as the mineralization starts near surface and is in an area with no previous drilling. This opens a very large area for potential resource expansion and demonstrates that the Altar deposit, while already very large, has the potential to become significantly larger.”
Dr. Kevin B. Heather, Chief Geological Officer of Aldebaran, commented: “Drill hole 223 should be viewed as a new brownfield discovery hole, considering that it was drilled into a previously undrilled area between Altar Central and Altar East, a significant distance from either of those known areas of mineralization. This is further verification that the geophysical anomaly is a reasonable proxy for mineralization and confirms our long-held belief that there is mineralization connecting Altar Central and Altar East together into a mega deposit. Drill hole 222 is also noteworthy as it encountered mineralization in an area within the 2021 conceptual open pit shell that is currently classified as “undefined waste” because there was no previous drilling. This hole demonstrates that additional, in-pit shallower drilling is justified to potentially convert more of the undefined waste into mineralization which could reduce the strip ratio of the conceptual resource pit.”
Aldebaran is a mineral exploration company that was spun out of Regulus Resources Inc. [REG-TSXV] in 2018 and has the same core management team. Aldebaran can earn up to an 80% interest in the Altar copper-gold project from Sibanye Stillwater Limited [SBSW-NYSE]. The Altar project hosts multiple porphyry copper-gold deposits with potential for additional discoveries. Altar forms part of a cluster of world-class porphyry copper deposits which includes Los Pelambres (Antofagasta Minerals), El Pachon (Glencore), and Los Azules (McEwen Copper).