Drill results lift Continental Gold

Strong drill results from nine diamond drill holes at the Buritica gold project in Colombia sent shares of Continental Gold (CNL-T) up 28¢ or 3.9% to $7.38 apiece on June 4.  

Highlights from the holes drilled into the Yaragua system include an intercept of 4.5 metres grading 20.3 grams gold per tonne and 102 grams silver per tonne, including 1.65 metres grading 49.2 grams gold and 262 grams silver in hole BUSY258.

The hole in southern Yaragua is a 500-metre step-out vertically in the Yaragua system, and is 1,356 metres down-hole at the 445-metre elevation level, more than 1,100 metres vertically below the surface expression of the Murcielagos South veins—demonstrating that the Yaragua system has a vertical extent of more than 1,300 metres and is open at depth.

Other high-grade intercepts include BUSY255, which returned 16.75 metres grading 38.8 grams gold and 43 grams silver, including 3.1 metres of 109.6 grams gold and 121 grams silver and 1.35 metres of 206.5 grams gold and 198 grams silver. Drill hole BUSY262 cut 1.15 metres of 49.7 grams gold and 30 grams silver. 

Continental has ten drills turning at Buritica, its 100%-owned 29,185-hectare flagship project, about 75 km northwest of Medellín in Colombia’s Antioquia Department. The project is accessible by paved road and has infrastructure with power and water.

Buriticá is about 2 km south of the town of Buriticá in a district that was an important gold-producing area during the Spanish colonial period, when it hosted several small artisanal mining operations exploiting narrow high-grade veins, alluvial and colluvial deposits, the company states on its website. Extensive areas of superficial weathered material are believed to have been worked by hydraulic methods, and small high-grade veins were worked underground for gold and silver.

Central to Continental’s land package are the Yaragua and Veta Sur systems. The former has been drill-delineated along 650 metres of strike and 1,300 vertical metres and has been partially sampled in underground developments. The Veta Sur system has been drill intersected along 550 metres of strike and 1,180 vertical metres.

The company describes both systems as characterized by multiple, steeply-dipping veins and broader, more disseminated mineralization and both remain open at depth and along strike.

The Yaragua and Veta Sur systems have a National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate of 1.11 million tonnes grading 17.8 grams gold for 630,000 ounces of contained gold, 42 grams silver for 1.5 million ounces of silver and 0.8% zinc for 18.7 million pounds of contained zinc in the measured and indicated category.

Inferred resources add 6.9 million tonnes grading 11.4 grams gold for 2.5 million ounces of contained gold, 43 grams silver for 9.5 million ounces of silver and 0.6% zinc for 88 million pounds of zinc. 

Continental shares closed on June 5 at $7.34 per share within a 52-week range of $5.35-9.62. The Toronto-listed junior has about 110 million shares outstanding.