Orosur Mining drills 0.30 g/t gold over 37.05 metres at Anza project, Colombia
Orosur Mining Inc. [OMI-TSXV, AIM] provided an update on the progress of exploration activities at the company’s flagship Anza project in Colombia.
The project is the subject of an exploration agreement with venture option with Colombian company Minera Monte Aguila (MMA). MMA is itself a 50/50 joint venture between Newmont Corp. [NGT-TSX; NEM-NYSE] and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. [AEM-TSX, NYSE] and is the Colombian vehicle by which these two companies jointly exercise their rights and obligations with respect to the exploration agreement over the project.
MMA is the operator of the project after exercising its right to assume operational control in the second half of 2021. Assay results for four additional diamond drill holes from the Pepas and Pupino prospects have been received.
Both the Pupino and Pepas prospects are located in the northern region of the Anza Project, roughly 8 km and 12 km, respectively north-northeast from the central APTA prospect that had seen most drilling at Anza up until early 2022.
Key intersections include hole PEP008 that returned 1.60 metres of 1.05 g/t gold, 2.05 g/t silver and 0.04% zinc. PEP009 returned 37.05 metres of 0.30 g/t gold, 1.10 g/t silver and 0.21% zinc., including 1.65 metres of 3.49 g/t gold, 5.21 g/t silbver and 0.19% zinc. PEP009 also returned 14.05 metres of 0.38 g/t gold, 175 g/t silver and 0.07% zinc, including 1.10 metres of 2.16 g/t gold, 0.36 g/t silver and 0.20% zinc.
Drilling activities commenced at Pepas in April 2022, and at the nearby Pupino prospect soon afterward. Assay results from the first six holes from Pepas were released on September 6 ,2022 and October 21 ,2022, which included thick, high-grade gold intersections in holes PEP001 (150.90m of 3.00 g/t Au), PEP005 (36.85m of 2.85m Au) and PEP007 (80.55m of 3.05m Au).
All three of these holes were drilled in different orientations from the same drill pad, with gold mineralization starting from surface. While the intersections were encouraging, the fact that the drill pad was positioned within the mineralized body, with holes drilling outward, was problematic in terms of being able to effectively define the shape and orientation of the body and so provide guidance for later drilling.
Two new drill pads were constructed some 200 metres southwest and 300 metres northwest respectively from the original drill pad to drill holes PEP008 and PEP009. Moving the rigs to the west was based on the assumption that the mineralized body dipped toward the west, and therefore these two holes were targeted at the presumed down-dip extension, vertically below the previous drilling.
The company has been informed that MMA has decided to temporarily suspend drilling activities at the Project to focus on field mapping, sampling and trenching activities will continue across the Project to define further drilling targets, including additional surface works specifically in the Pepas prospect area.
As previously announced on September 9, 2022, MMA has provided the company with a Phase 1 Earn-In Notice, thereby notifying the company of MMA’s intention of moving to Phase 2 of the Exploration Agreement. Phase 2 would cover a period of a maximum of four years, over which time MMA would be required to invest US$20M in the project.
As previously noted, this process entails the formation of a new Mining Company, the governance of which will be based on terms in the existing Exploration Agreement. The process is progressing on schedule and is expected to be completed in the next few months.
Brad George, CEO, commented, “While these drill results are not as exciting as hoped, this is not surprising. Epithermal gold systems by their nature are complex and several phases of drilling are often required to properly define the geometry before more substantial drilling can then be undertaken. In the meantime, we continue the work necessary to create the corporate structure for the MMA-Orosur joint venture and hope to have this in place in the next few months.”
Orosur Mining operates in Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. It has discontinued operations in Uruguay.
Anza is a gold exploration project, comprising three exploration licences, four exploration licence applications, and several small exploitation permits, totalling 207.5 km2 in the prolific Mid-Cauca belt of Colombia. The Anza Project is currently wholly owned by Orosur via its subsidiary, Minera Anza S.A.
The project is located 50 km west of Medellin and is easily accessible by all-weather roads and boasts excellent infrastructure including water, power, communications and large exploration camp.
The Anza Project is subject to an Exploration Agreement with Venture Option dated September 7, 2018 between Orosur’s 100% subsidiary Minera Anza S.A and Minera Monte Aguila SAS (MMA), a 50/50 joint venture between Newmont and Agnico Eagle Mines.