Patagonia Gold to resume drilling at El Tranquilo, Argentina
Patagonia Gold Corp. [PGDC-TSXV; HGLD-OTC] has planned a new drilling campaign at its El Tranquilo gold/silver property in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina. The property encompasses the company’s Cap Oeste gold/silver project, which includes the former surface mine and current heap leach operations (the Capo Project) and Pan American Silver’s COSE (Cap Oeste Sur Este) mine.
The initial focus of the program will be on the Monte Leon target followed by other targets defined by the company’s geological team. Monte Leon is located about 11 km southeast of the Capo Project.
Highlights of the 81,000-hectare El Tranquilo Property and the Monte Leon target: The property is host to the company’s former surface mine at the Capo Project and Pan American’s COSE underground mine. Exploration targets are within Jurassic-aged volcanic host rocks similar to those that host mineralization at the Capo Project and COSE mines.There are multiple, NW-trending, low sulfidation mineralized structures, including in the Monte Leon target. Mineralization at Monte Leon occurs as stockworks and structures in breccias with near-surface oxide potential. Monte Leon zone is approximately 500 metres long on strike (NW) and over 200 metres wide (NE) within a +2-km long NW-trending corridor.
Christopher van Tienhoven, CEO of Patagonia, said, “We are excited to recommence exploration on our large and prospective El Tranquilo property with an initial focus on the Monte Leon target where we believe there is potential to define both near-surface, oxide-style and deeper, higher grade, sulfide-style mineralization.”
The company expects to start drilling of up to 5,000 metres of core in early 2021 with a budget of US$1.5 million. New discoveries at Monte Leon and the greater El Tranquilo area are expected to be synergistic with the company’s current residual, oxide leaching operations at the Capo Project as well as potential future, higher grade material from the Cose-style mineralization below the surface mine.
The COSE-style mineralization is a subset of the current mineral resources at the Capo Project, containing 478,000 tonnes of indicated mineral resources grading 12.62 g/t gold and 472.4 g/t silver, which the company is studying for potential to be recovered by underground mining and mill processing.