Aldebaran drills 19.08 g/t gold over 14.9 metres at Altar, Argentina
Aldebaran Resources Inc. [ALDE-TSXV; ADBRF-OTC] has discovered a new high-grade gold zone at the Altar copper-gold project located in San Juan, Argentina. The company made the discovery in hole QDM-22-45, which is targeting the North extension of the Radio Porphyry copper-gold target and was drilled beneath the current resource for the QDM Gold deposit. QDM-22-45 is still in progress.
Highlights include a significant high-grade gold discovery has been made beneath the existing; QDM Gold deposit QDM-22-45 returned 14.9 metres of 19.08 g/t gold, 12.28 g/t silver, and 0.23% copper, including 9.45 metres of 27.84 g/t gold, 18.46 g/t silver, and 0.24% copper, including 1.65 metres of 98.7 g/t gold, 19.40 g/t silver, and 0.27% copper beneath the existing QDM Gold deposit.
The high-grade gold interval is surrounded by a much wider envelope of highly altered and anomalous gold mineralization, typical of the mineralization making up the QDM Gold deposit. Follow-up drilling will be required to test the extent of this new discovery.
Dr. Kevin B. Heather, Chief Geological Officer, commented: “This is by far the highest-grade, gold-dominated intercept we have encountered at the Altar project to date. The epithermal style of this mineralization and associated alteration, along with its spatial relationship to the QDM Gold deposit, suggests that it may be a high-grade ‘feeder-structure’ to the larger, lower-grade, disseminated QDM Gold style mineralization currently reported in the resource. Clearly this intercept, which is made up of multiple multi-gram assay intervals, warrants additional follow-up drilling to determine its potential size and geometry, and opens up the possibility of finding additional higher-grade feeder structures.”
John Black, CEO, said, “We normally don’t report partial results from a drill hole; however, due to the high-grades associated with this interval we felt it appropriate to do so. We know that the Altar project has the potential to host high-grade copper and copper-gold mineralization, however this is the first time we’ve observed this type of high-grade gold mineralization. More drilling is required to better understand the controls on this new gold zone. This adds an exciting new aspect to the Altar and QDM/Radio story.”
The company is currently drilling with four drill rigs on the Altar project. Three are currently at the QDM/Radio area, while the other is at Altar Central.The QDM gold deposit is primarily a gold-silver deposit with minor associated copper. It consists of dominantly sulphide mineralization with minor oxide (~10%) mineralization. The resource estimate for QDM Gold is constrained using a conceptual open pit. Total Measured and Indicated Resources are 20.0 million tonnes of 0.78 g/t gold, 3.62 g/t silver and 0.06% copper. Inferred Resources are 1.2 million tonnes of 0.58 g/t gold, 5.34 g/t silver and 0.03% copper.
Aldebaran is a mineral exploration company that was spun out of Regulus Resources Inc. in 2018 and has the same core management team. Aldebaran acquired the Rio Grande copper-gold project located in Salta Province, Argentina from Regulus along with several other early-stage projects in Argentina. Aldebaran can earn up to an 80% interest in the Altar copper-gold project  from Sibanye Stillwater Limited [SBSW-NYSE American; SBYSF-OTC; SSW-Jo’burg]. The Altar project hosts multiple porphyry copper-gold deposits with potential for additional discoveries.