Orla Mining reports initial resource for Caballito deposit in Panama

Orla Mining (TSX: OLA; NYSE: ORLA) has completed an initial resource estimate for its Caballito copper-gold deposit, part of its 100% owned Cerro Quema project in southwestern Panama.

According to Orla, the Caballito deposit represents an opportunity for the company to potentially transform the scale and scope of Cerro Quema beyond the separate oxide project outlined in a July prefeasibility study.

Caballito is a new zone made up of low-arsenic copper-gold mineralization. The deposit outcrops and the mineralization has been intersected over an estimated strike length of about 800 metres and to a vertical extent of about 400 metres. It remains open along strike and at depth.

The company has outlined 31.95 million indicated tonnes of sulphide resources at Caballito grading 0.96% copper-equivalent for 676 million lb. of copper equivalent, and 22.57 million inferred tonnes of sulphide resources grading 0.85% copper-equivalent  for 425 million lb. of copper-equivalent.  

“Caballito is a grassroots discovery that has the potential to transform our future in the country,” Jason Simpson, Orla’s president and CEO, stated in a news release. “We first discovered this high-grade copper-gold mineralization in 2017 and have continued to systematically explore the region, having now drilled over 40 more holes in Caballito.” 

Orla is planning a drill program for next year that will target expanding the resources at Caballito as well as the Idaida zone to the northwest. The company will also drill several newly defined targets.

“Our regional work has highlighted coincident geophysical and geochemical anomalies in a similar geological context in targets such as La Pelona and Quemita and defined a highly prospective porphyry target at La Prieta, which we intend to drill test in 2022. We have also identified copper-gold mineralization below both of the La Pava and Quemita gold-oxide pits, requiring additional follow-up work,” Simpson said.

The company’s Cerro Quema project, located on the Azuero Peninsula in Los Santos province, is an oxide heap-leach gold project containing probable reserves of 21.7 million tonnes grading 0.80 gram gold per tonne for 560,000 ounces of gold.

The prefeasibility study released earlier this year contemplated an open-pit mine producing 81,000 oz. per year over a six-year mine life, recovering 489,000 oz. of gold.

The company says the project will be developed in phases, with mineralized material mined from the La Pava and Quema-Quemita pits.