NGEx Minerals drills 1.13% CuEq over 390 metres at Los Helados, Chile
NGEx Minerals Ltd. [NGEX-TSXV] released additional assays from four holes drilled at the Los Helados copper-gold project, located in Region III, Chile. (69% NGEX; ~31% Nippon Caserones Resources). These results contain some of the highest grades ever seen at Los Helados, including molybdenum grades which are significantly higher than any intersected previously, and demonstrate that the Fenix zone is rapidly growing into a second major centre of mineralization. Most of the new drilling into the Fenix and Alicanto zones is outside of the current Los Helados mineral resource and both zones remain open to expansion in several directions.
Highlights: LHDH081-2 (Fenix zone) returned 343.8 metres at 0.90% CuEq (copper equivalent), including 63.8 metres at 1.25% CuEq. LHDH081-3 (Fenix zone) returned 234.0 metres at 0.90% CuEq, including 28.0 metres at 1.49% CuEq. LHDH084 (Fenix zone) returned 390.0 metres at 1.13% CuEq. LHDH086 (Alicanto zone) returned 104.0 metres at 0.69% CuEq.
Wojtek Wodzicki, president and CEO, stated: “The 2023 exploration program is shaping up to be the most successful and impactful in the company’s history. Years of hard work and exploration experience are coming together to deliver a series of high impact discoveries. Last week we released high-grade results from the new Potro Cliffs discovery which is the fourth major system discovered in the Vicuna district. Today’s results from Los Helados, 9 km to the north of Potro Cliffs, continue to confirm the Fenix and Alicanto zones as significant new centres of high-grade mineralization. Both of these zones have considerable room to grow and offer the potential for a meaningful expansion of the Los Helados resource. We are particularly encouraged by the copper and molybdenum grades of these new zones, which are significantly higher than the averages seen to date. This season’s drilling is proving the exploration adage that big systems tend to grow and deliver continued positive surprises.”
Los Helados contains at least three distinct high-grade zones hosted within well-defined structural corridors that crosscut the large breccia body that hosts the deposit, the Alicanto zone, the Condor zone and the Fenix zone.
The current drilling program is focused on defining the geometry and size of the Alicanto and Fenix zones.
The final two holes of the program are under way, supported by a directional drilling crew from STYR SpA, a leading provider of Devico directional drilling technology. The company has also completed a comprehensive geophysical program to assist in targeting higher grade mineralization including a three-dimensional induced polarization/resistivity survey, a drone magnetics survey, and a magneto-telluric survey. Results are currently being processed and will help guide a comprehensive interpretation combined with the results of the current drilling program.
NGEx Minerals holds the large-scale Los Helados copper-gold deposit, located in Chile’s Region III, as well as the Potro Cliffs and Valle Ancho projects, located in Argentina. NGEx Minerals is the majority partner and operator for the Los Helados project, subject to a joint exploration agreement with Nippon Caserones Resources Co. Ltd.