Solvista rises on long gold-copper intercept at Caramanta

VANCOUVER — The intercept returned a great set of numbers: 457 metres averaging 1.01 grams gold per tonne, 0.21% copper and 2.3 grams silver per tonne, starting at surface. For the team at Solvista Gold (SVV-V), however, the real buzz comes from the details.

“What excites us here as geologists is that we’ve identified another mineralized porphyry phase at depth that has some pretty interesting gold and copper values associated with it,” said Solvista president and CEO Miller O’Prey  in an interview. “The near-surface mineralization is great and it’s important, but it’s a relatively straightforward story. The fact that we’ve found additional mineralization at depth speaks to the potential of the area.”

O’Prey was discussing his company’s Caramanta project, a 200 sq. km property 120 km south of Medellin in Colombia.

The project sits within the Middle Cauca Belt, a historic gold district known for multi-phase porphyry deposits. AngloGold Ashanti’s (AU-N) 24 million oz. La Colosa porphyry project is a prime example: its gold comes from eight distinct porphyry phases.

The fact that multiple porphyry phases can produce such large deposits is precisely why O’Prey is so intrigued by the latest results from Caramanta. Solvista just wrapped up an 8,000-metre drill program at the site. The first few holes targeted the El Reten area and results suggest the project holds more porphyry phases.

The first evidence came from hole 1218, which returned that aforementioned 457-metre intercept. The first few hundred metres of mineralization came from the known El Reten porphyry body, but the deepest part of the intercept — 74 metres grading 1.23 grams gold, 0.25% copper and 2 grams silver — comes from the second porphyry body that O’Prey finds so exciting.

Nearby, hole 1220 cut 323 metres grading 1.34 grams gold, 0.21% copper and 2.5 grams silver from surface. The upper part of the intercept — 80 metres averaging 2.32 grams gold, 0.36% copper and 3.5 grams silver — extends the high-grade core of the main El Reten porphyry to the north, while the lower portion extends the zone at depth.

Hole 1221, meanwhile, extended the zone to the southwest when it returned 137 metres grading 0.88 gram gold, 0.19% copper and 3.4 grams silver from surface. 

Hole 1323 offers another indication of Caramanta’s potential as a multi-phase porphyry system. Drilled from a new platform northwest of earlier holes, it returned 197.4 metres grading 0.58 gram gold, 0.12% copper and 1.9 grams silver from the main El Reten body. Beneath this intercept, however, Solvista says strong potassic alteration of the volcanic rocks continued. But even though copper and gold were not present, the potassicly altered rocks did contain molybdenum values. O’Prey says this is another reason to believe Caramanta may offer more mineralized phases at depth.

The company has identified a good number of porphyry bodies at the site. In fact, Solvista’s geologists believe they have found no fewer than nine porphyry bodies at El Reten alone. O’Prey says the nine bodies identified to date all bear slightly different mineralization. Solvista’s team says that the varying geology and the number of bodies suggest that Caramanta came from a “long-lived, dynamic system.”

The recent results follow some good numbers from Solvista’s first drill campaign at Caramanta. The first hole into the project, released in September 2012, intercepted 150 metres grading 1.65 grams gold, 0.24% copper and 2.9 grams silver starting 5 metres below surface. Below that the drill encountered another mineralized body, returning 102 metres grading 0.37 gram gold, 0.12% copper and 1.3 grams silver from 163 metres depth. Hole 2 was also noteworthy, returning 186 metres grading 1.22 grams gold, 0.24% copper and 3.3 grams silver from 12 metres downhole.

Based on drilling results and rock-chip sampling, Solvista has traced El Reten on surface over an area measuring 430 by 360 metres. With numerous promising intercepts from just 17 reported holes, O’Prey’s optimism is understandable.

“What gets us going the most about the Caramanta project is the information that’s yet to come from the other targets within the trend that we have drilled, and those that we want to drill,” he says. “Hopefully over the next couple of months we will be able to put out some results from those targets, and other people will get a sense of what’s got us so excited.”

Solvista’s recently completed drill program included an initial set of holes at two of those other targets. El Corral is 600 metres north of El Reten while Ajiaco Sur is another 400 metres north of El Corral. Results from the holes are pending, but Solvista says initial examinations of the core suggests similar alteration types to that found at El Reten, though with more copper and silver.

El Reten, El Corral and Ajiaco Sur represent the three southernmost targets at Caramanta, where Solvista has identified numerous porphyry indicators along a 3 km long trend.

Solvista has advanced two other targets along this trend to drill-ready status, and the company plans to move its drill to these zones — known as Malabrigo and Casa Verde — in the third quarter of the year.

Solvista listed as a public company in May 2011, previous to which it operated privately as Norvista Gold.

Norvista had a strategic alliance with Grupo de Bullet, a company led by Robert Allen. As an early mover in Colombia’s gold space, Allen locked up a great deal of prospective ground in the country and put much of it into the Grupo vehicle.

After reviewing Grupo’s extensive portfolio of properties, the Norvista team inked a deal in 2009 for Caramanta and for Guadalupe, a larger property 110 km northeast of Medellin. The projects were selected for their location on the Middle Cauca Belt and within the known mining district of Antioquia, and for their favourable initial exploration results. The properties are also close to paved highways and hydroelectric power.

The company was renamed Solvista upon listing in 2011, at which time it raised $15 million in its initial public offering. Another private placement saw Kinross Gold (K-T, KGC-N) buy 3.6 million units of Solvista, giving the major a 9.9% stake.

In February of this year Solvista added $5.6 million to its coffers by selling 12.4 million units for 45¢ apiece. Each unit is comprised of a share and a warrant exercisable at 60¢ for two years. With the raise Solvista has $4 million in hand, which is enough to fund its exploration planned for this year.

“It wasn’t the easiest money we’ve ever raised,” O’Prey said of the recent financing. “But we did manage to raise it, which is important, as it gives us enough money to do more drilling this year. We would like to be a bit more aggressive on that front, but the times are what they are, so we’re focused on completing 4,000 metres this year. That will mean five targets that we’ll have drilled by year-end. I don’t think we’ll get any of those targets to a National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource this year, but we’ll be able to give the educated reader a good idea of the potential.”

Solvista also just finished drilling at its other Colombian project, Guadalupe, where the company is probing a zone of structurally controlled high-grade gold and silver known as El Oso. This zone appears to host two discrete, parallel mine
ralized structures that have returned such intercepts as 18.35 grams gold over 2.8 metres, 9.29 grams gold over 1.9 metres and 3.02 grams gold plus 169.8 grams silver over 2.1 metres.

Mineralization at El Oso consists of epithermal-style quartz-sulphide veins and sulphide-bearing breccias. Solvista has since shifted its efforts at Guadalupe to mapping and sampling while it focuses on Caramanta.

On news of the latest results from Caramanta, Solvista’s share price gained 10¢ to close at 38¢. The company hit a 52-week high of $1.29 in September after announcing results from the first two holes at Caramanta, from a low of 19¢ two months prior.

Solvista has 68 million shares outstanding.