Atico Mining reports multiple high-grade intercepts at El Roble Mine, Colombia
Atico Mining Corp. [TSXV-ATY; OTCQX-ATCMF] reported positive results for the latest 49 drill holes being carried out in an area of historical mining to expand tonnage at the El Roble mine, Colombia.
In addition, the company reported results for 16 diamond drill core holes, which included 20.70 metres of 5.76% Cu, 4.46 g/t Au and 11.50 metres of 8.16% Cu, 8.09 g/t Au. Ore grade intercepts in another 14 drill holes are also reported over narrower widths of approximately 1 to 2 metres in areas with limited drilling which highlights the possibility of further extending the ore body with additional drill programs.
“We continue to see very encouraging results with high grade intercepts from our mine vicinity drill campaign aimed at infilling known areas of mineralization while at the same time looking for extension of the main historic massive sulphide bodies at the El Roble deposit. This area was mined by operators previous to Atico obtaining control of the mine on November 22, 2013,” said Fernando E. Ganoza, CEO. “These strong assay results continue to increase confidence in our view that additional high-grade copper and gold mineralization remains both within the historically defined bodies and beyond the previously outlined mineralized shell and are open at depth and along strike. The drill campaign is planned to continue throughout 2024 while in parallel the company is working on an updated resource estimate and will make this available shortly.”
The goal of the current surface and underground drilling program at the El Roble mine is to define zones of mineralization within the extent of main historic massive sulphide body that were not exploited by previous operators and also to expand the historically identified resource. During the first quarter of 2023, the company began this drill infill program to test the main mineralized body and the immediately adjacent area with a total of 7,880 meters of drilling in 77 holes. The drill campaign will be continued during 2024 and results for the drill holes will be reported as the assay results for mineralized intercepts are received.
The El Roble mine is a high-grade, underground copper and gold mine with nominal processing plant capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day, located in the Department of Choco in Colombia. Its commercial product is a copper-gold concentrate.
Since obtaining control of the mine on November 22, 2013, Atico has upgraded the operation from a historical nominal capacity of 400 tonnes per day.
El Roble has Proven and Probable reserves of 1.00 million tonnes grading 3.02% copper and 1.76 g/t gold, at a cut-off grade of 1.3% copper equivalent with an effective date of September 30, 2020. Mineralization is open at depth and along strike and the company plans to further test the limits of the deposit.
On the larger land package, the company has identified a prospective stratigraphic contact between volcanic rocks and black and grey pelagic sediments and cherts that has been traced by Atico geologists for 10 km. This contact has been determined to be an important control on VMS mineralization on which Atico has identified numerous target areas prospective for VMS type mineralization occurrence, which is the focus of the current surface drill program at El Roble.
Atico generates significant cash flow through the operation of the El Roble mine and is developing its high-grade La Plata VMS project in Ecuador.