Salazar restarts drilling at Curipamba

Salazar Resources (SRL-V) is back in the game in Ecuador, and has the drills turning at its Curipamba project, which is a gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) camp.

The company says the Ministry of Non-renewable Natural Resources has authorized it to restart all exploration activities at the project and has given the company title to its mining concessions for 23 years with a renewable option of another 25 years.

“We are very pleased to be the first mining company to be granted permission to recommence exploration activities in Ecuador in over five months,” Fredy Salazar, president and chief executive of Salazar, said in a statement. “This is a testament to the hard work and cooperation with the government of Ecuador for a sustainable and responsible mining future in the country.”

Salazar added that the project received “the overwhelming support” of the surrounding communities during recent meetings conducted by the government.

Since releasing the news to restart drilling on June 7, the company’s share price has been on the rise. On June 3, the company’s shares closed at 82¢, but hit a 52-week high of $1.28 on June 15.

Salazar was in the early stages of its first phase of drilling when it discovered the El Domo deposit on the property. It had only drilled 13 holes at the deposit before it was ordered by the government to stop all work while a new mining mandate was implemented.

Still, the company managed to put together an inferred resource based on the drilling it did get done, outlining 4.08 million tonnes grading 3.48 grams gold per tonne, 76.33 grams silver per tonne, 2.51% copper, 4.55% zinc and 0.47% lead.

Salazar describes El Domo as a Kuroko-type VMS body that is rich in gold and silver.

VMS deposits in districts similar to Curipamba often occur in clusters and within each cluster there is typically one giant deposit greater than 20 million tonnes, the company says.

The project’s second phase, which is underway, includes an 18,000-metre drilling campaign and 500-line km of geophysics, and aims to find additional deposits.

Curipamba sits in western Ecuador, in the Western Mountain range’s Macuchi Group, and is roughly a 2.5-hour drive from the port city of Guayaquil.