Torq Resources drills 0.38 g/t gold over 557 metres at Santa Cecilia, Chile
Torq Resources Inc. [TORQ-TSXV; TRBMF-OTCQX] reported drill results from the first two drill holes at the Cerro del Medio target in the company’s inaugural drill program at the Santa Cecilia gold-copper porphyry project located in the Maricunga belt in northern Chile. The project is located approximately 100 km east of the city of Copiapo and is immediately adjacent to the Norte Abierto project held by Newmont and Barrick, which comprises of the Caspiche and Cerro Casale gold-copper porphyry deposits.
Highlights: Drill hole 23SC-DDH-002 intersected 557 metres of 0.38 g/t gold, 0.23% copper and 56 ppm molybdenum (Mo) at a depth of 442 metres to 999 metres within wall rock, consisting of tuffaceous units and andesites as well as isolated dioritic and dacitic porphyry dikes toward the bottom of the intercept. The drill hole bottomed in mineralization (999 m deep).
The gold grades encountered in drill hole 23SC-DDH-002 represent an 81% increase from the previously reported historical intercept (CDM-12-003) of 925.7 metres of 0.21 g/t Au, 0.27% Cu and 82 ppm Mo at the Cerro del Medio target that was drilled in 2012 by a previous operator. The increased grade demonstrates a clear vector to the south and the east toward a potentially higher-grade causative intrusion.
The mineralized intercept encountered in 23SC-DDH-002 is located 500 metres vertically above the historical intercept in CDM-12-003 and is open vertically, both upward and downward, as well as laterally. The company plans to drill vertically, above its reported intercept, to establish the depth that the higher-grade porphyry mineralization begins.
Strong sericite/chlorite alteration is spatially associated with the higher-grade mineralization encountered in drill hole 23SC-DDH-002 and is more much pervasive than observed in the two historical drill holes from 2012. The company interprets this as another positive vector to move toward a potentially higher-grade potassic core and causative intrusion.
Drill hole 23SC-DDH-001 is located 700 metres northeast of drill hole 23SC-DDH-002 and intersected 476.3 metres of 0.23 g/t Au, 0.22% Cu and 93 ppm Mo at a depth of 584 metres to 1,060.3 metres. Mineralization is hosted within tuffaceous and andesitic wall rock with isolated porphyry dikes, and the drill hole bottomed in mineralization (1,060.3 m deep). Drill hole 23SC-DDH-001 included a higher-grade internal interval of 172 metres of 0.3 g/t Au, 0.26% Cu and 100 ppm Mo at a depth of 766 metres to 938 metres.
Drill results from Torq’s inaugural program at Santa Cecilia represent a major expansion of the porphyry mineralization to the east and southeast from historical intercepts that outlined a 960 metres by 860 metres envelope of porphyry mineralization within wall rock. The system remains open with the apparent causative intrusion remaining undrilled at this early stage of exploration at the Cerro del Medio target.
Shawn Wallace, CEO and chair, stated: “We are extremely pleased with the results from our first two drill holes at Santa Cecilia, which not only intersected mineralization, but higher-grade mineralization than what was drilled historically. We’ve had high expectations for this project since first seeking to acquire it, and now, in our inaugural drill program, it is already proving its potential to become a world-class gold-copper asset.
“We look forward to resuming drilling at the project following Chile’s winter season, when we will seek to continue to expand the discovery of mineralization at the Cerro del Medio target as well as drill test our high potential copper porphyry targets on the eastern side of the project, nearest to Newmont and Barrick’s Caspiche deposit.”
A message from Michael Henrichsen, chief geological officer: “Santa Cecilia is a rare project that continues to improve technically as our exploration work advances. To have significantly improved the grade in the first two drill holes demonstrates that we have clear vectors moving us toward our objective of finding the higher-grade causative intrusion at Cerro del Medio. In addition, the delineation of porphyry mineralization at surface at the Pircas Norte and Gemelos Norte targets, within 1.5 km of the Caspiche deposit, provides the company with excellent undrilled exploration opportunities, which we plan to start testing in Q4.”
With Torq’s first two drill holes completed at Santa Cecilia having demonstrated higher grades within the system, the company’s technical team is completing detailed geological logging and modeling of the porphyry system to refine additional drill targets at Cerro del Medio with the objective of intersecting the higher-grade causative intrusion. The company plans to resume its phase 1 drill program in Q4 of this year, with an additional 10,000 metres to 12,000 metres of drilling that would focus on the Cerro del Medio target while also testing its Pircas Norte and Gemelos Norte porphyry targets further to the east, where there is outcropping porphyry mineralization adjacent to the Caspiche deposit.