Gold is being delightful in the markets and leaders are optimistic for it to continue that way with Goldcorp founder, Rob McEwen holding firm on his call for $5,000. Even before this recent uptick, Eric Sprott had begun showing his faith in the precious metals space: since May Sprott had made a flurry of investments into junior miners, 83% of which was in gold according to Oreinc. Amongst those in South America were: C$32 million into Continental Gold exploring in Colombia; over C$20 million into Jaguar Mining producing and exploring in Brazil and over C$9 million into Rio2 exploring in Peru and Chile.
The most recent gold discoveries in Chile include the Alturas project (Barrick) with inferred resources of 5.5 Moz @ 1.25 g/t Au and the Salares Norte project (Goldfields) with inferred resources of 3.79 Moz @ 4.6 g/t Au. Both discoveries lie in the prolific Maricunga gold belt situated in the northeast portion of the country (Atacama Region), along the Andes Cordillera and near-by the Argentinean border. The Maricunga gold belt is Chile’s most prolific gold region and hosts numerous high sulphidation epithermal (HSE) Au-Ag deposits including La Coipa (2 Moz @ 1.7 g/t) and Lobo-Marte (7.8 Moz @ 1.2 g/t Au). In addition, there are large porphyry Au-Cu deposits including Cerro Casale (35 Moz @ 0.5 gt Au) and Caspiche (25 Moz @ 0.5 g/t Au) recently acquired by Goldcorp.
Here we have selected 3 gold opportunities with Tier 1 potential out of a variety of top gold exploration projects within the Kura Mineral Portfolio:
Gold Opportunity 1
Privately owned | Early exploration and Geological Mapping Completed – Drill Ready
Project 1 represents an opportunity for a HS breccia Au-Ag discovery as evidenced by a similar geological setting and alteration footprints to Pascua Lama, Valeriano and El Encierro.
The project contains two well-identified, ready-to-drill targets. One target shows potential for a HS breccia-Au-Ag deposit at depth as evidenced by a concentric, 4 x 1.5 km size, silicification + argillic alteration footprint with a silicified tourmaline breccia body at its centre showing gold anomalies of 0.4 g/t Au + 0.9 g/t Ag that is in intrusive contact with ryholitic to dacitc porphyry to the SE that shows anomalies up to 0.8 g/t Au + 0.6 g/t Ag. The other target exhibits potential HS epithermal veins as evidenced by the presence of polymetallic Au-Ag-Cu quartz veins with up to 55.8 g/t Au + 88 g/t Ag + 8.3% Cu.
Gold Opportunity 2
Privately owned | Early exploration
Project 2 has had no history of previous exploration reported and is made up of multiple exploration concessions totalling an area of 24,000 h. To date 120 targets have been identified through a systematic generative exploration program that included field evaluation of 57 targets and assay analysis of over 1,500 geochemistry samples.
Despite its early stage, Gold Project 2 represents a unique opportunity to develop an exploration program towards a major discovery given the evident similarities to the characteristics prior to discovery of nearby world-class deposits. One of the targets showed strong similarities and proximity to the Salares Norte recent discovery whilst three other targets resemble more to the Alturas discovery, both discoveries falling in the category of HSE Au-Ag deposits.
Gold Opportunity 3
Privately owned | Early exploration and Geological Mapping Completed
Project 3 represents an opportunity for a HS epithermal Au-Ag discovery as evidenced by a similar geological setting and alteration footprints to Los Helados gold project located within 50km north along the same NNE-SSW structural trend. The eastern target represents the most prospective as a HS breccia Au-Ag deposit at depth which is evidenced by the occurrence of a hydrothermal breccia body and multiple advanced argillic alteration lithocaps with gold anomalies up to 0.76 g/t Au.
If these opportunities are of interest or you would like to learn about the others in our Portfolio please contact our Exploration Manager, Thomas Eggers at teggers@kuraminerals.com,