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Operator Aur, which holds 51% of the joint venture, recently completed 2,220 metres of drilling in 12 holes. Although nine of these returned only anomalous values, three holes drilled below a mineralized outcrop intersected encouraging gold grades.
Two of these holes returned 65 metres grading 1.59 grams gold per tonne (including 18 metres of 3.15 grams) and 60 metres of 2.02 grams (including 45 metres of 2.39 grams). A third returned an 18-metre interval of 0.95 gram gold and a 24-metre interval of 1.22 grams (including 13 metres of 1.57 grams).
The property is about 250 km southeast of Antofagasta in Region II, along the western margin of the West Fissure fault zone. The West Fissure hosts most of Chile’s large copper deposits.
Work to date has focused on the contact between a thick sequence of andesitic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The target is a low-sulphidation, gold-bearing epithermal system. Outcrops are limited, though mapping and sampling indicate there may be multiple zones of multi-stage epithermal quartz veining within an overall structural corridor measuring at least 400 metres wide by 1,500 metres long.
Preliminary metallurgical tests suggest that the fine-grained mineralization may be amenable to heap leaching. Recoveries varying from 83% to 96% were obtained from recent bottle-roll tests.
Both Aur and Arizona Star have been active in Chile for several years.
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