Strong assays expand known mineralisation and confirm higher-grade gold & copper zones Sunstone Metals Ltd is pleased to announce that the latest assays at El Palmar continued to expand the area of known mineralisation and reveal significant higher-grade zones of >0.2% copper and 0.35g/t gold. The results demonstrate that El Palmar now has substantial scale and grades which are in line with those seen in many of the world’s high-profile porphyry deposits, including those nearby such as Alpala and TandayamaAmerican.
“We are expanding the size of El Palmar, and therefore its value, with virtually every hole,” Sunstone Managing Director Malcolm Norris said.
“There is also growing evidence of higher-grade copper domains with >0.2% copper and gold in excess of 0.35g/t. This should deliver a highly attractive gold-equivalent result once we have metallurgical results in hand.
“The combination of the scale and the grades we are generating at El Palmar shows that this is clearly becoming a very valuable project in a world which desperately needs more large discoveries.
“Sunstone has two such discoveries and I have no doubt that this will be increasingly recognised by the market, particularly as we move towards a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate at Bramaderos, and advancing our
definition of the El Palmar orebody, over coming months.”
El Palmar is located in northern Ecuador in the same regional structural belt that hosts the 2.66Bt Alpala copper-gold deposit grading 0.25g/t gold and 0.37% copper, and the 0.53Bt Tandayama-America deposit
grading 0.19g/t gold and 0.24% copper, within the Cascabel project, and in the vicinity of the 1Bt Llurimagua copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit grading 0.89% copper and 0.04% molybdenum.
The El Palmar results reported in this release comprise all assays from drill holes EPDD0012, 013, 014, 015 and 017, with intersections primarily in the upper 500m zone of the eastern sector of the main El Palmar target. Hole EPDD012 drilled deeper and tested the margin position of the deeper porphyry
target. It intersected strongly mineralised intervals in shallow domains and several intervals between 673.5m and 1087m of anomalous gold, copper, molybdenum, lead and zinc. Hole EPDD013 drilled a well mineralised
gold and copper interval in the upper 100m of the southern portion of the main El Palmar target and was extended towards the SE satellite target but is interpreted to have passed along the edge of that target at depth and intersected 0.11g/t gold and 0.07% copper from 402m to 461.1m. The SE satellite target has outcropping stockwork and grades an average of 0.33g/t gold and 0.12% copper from surface rock chip sampling over a strike length of 60m.
Geological modelling of the El Palmar system is suggesting a steep northerly plunge to the group of intrusives that host, and are coeval with, the gold-copper mineralisation. This interpretation, which is evolving based on
3-D modelling of drill hole logs and assays, is guiding the location of future drill holes. Holes EPDD020 and 021 are testing this model. The model is also guiding drill planning of the ‘untested’ areas.
Soil sampling is also rapidly progressing and providing definition to additional targets within the concession in preparation for drill testing. Porphyry targets have been defined to the southeast near the Toachi fault, and also immediately northeast of the main El Palmar target. Both of these regions exhibit geochemical signatures typical of the alteration caps that lie above porphyry systems.
Soil sampling is now progressing to the north (Figure 2) and covering multiple areas of outcropping epithermal gold mineralisation, including where historical surface rock chip sampling yielded an 85m-long (and open) zone from which 101 surface samples averaged 1.2 g/t Au, 25 g/t Ag and 0.16% Cu, with peak values for these elements being 6.47 g/t Au, 225g/t Ag and 0.78% Cu.
Interpretation of the Spartan magnetotelluric (MT) survey data is ongoing and is being integrated with magnetic models. It is expected that an Orion 3D-DCIP survey will also be completed at El Palmar during 2022 to deliver high confidence deep drill targets.
Sunstone’s cash and equity investments remain strong at ~$26m, allowing expanded exploration activities at both El Palmar in northern Ecuador and Bramaderos in southern Ecuador.
(Source: Press Releases – www.sunstonemetals.com.au/site/PDF/f93f8c17-5865-4aea-9bff-557d2626d466/ElPalmardrillingexpandsgoldcopperdiscovery)
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