Atacama Pacific Gold has announced additional drilling results from the ongoing Phase III drill campaign at its Cerro Maricunga Gold Project, which is situated 140 km northeast of Copiapo, Chile. Highlights of the drill assay include 1.02 g/t gold over 144 m from the Crux Zone, including 34 m at 2.11 g/t gold; and 0.74 g/t gold over 278 m from the Lynx Zone, including 46 m at 1.29 g/t gold.
The Preliminary Phase III drilling program is primarily concentrated on boosting the size of the Crux Zone. This zone represents the gold mineralization’s southern centre along the 2.5 km northwest drifting Cerro Maricunga oxide gold deposit. During the Phase II drill campaign, the Crux Zone was not completely delineated. At the Crux Zone, the company has identified a core zone of gold mineralization of higher grade, measuring 300x200 m and expanding to depth. The drill hole CMD-104 intersected this higher grade zone, following up on prior results from CMD-001 and CMR-098 drill holes.
The ongoing drilling program at the Crux Zone, besides delineating a higher grade core zone, has shoved the zone’s northeast contact to an additional 100 m in excess of 450 m. The mineralization is exposed to depth and partly exposed to the northeast.
At the Phoenix Zone’s southern end, the CMR-110 drill hole intersected a wide zone of low-grade mineralization, which is 116 m grading 0.36 g/t gold beginning from surface, followed by additional zones of 0.2 to 0.3 g/t gold down hole and 50 m grading 0.26 g/t gold. This intercept signifies a new low-grade gold zone parallel and adjacent to the core mineralized trend.
Atacama Pacific’s President and CEO, Carl Hansen stated that drilling is progressing well with more than 27,000 m from the planned 42,000-m Phase III program concluded so far. In addition, the engineering scoping study is progressing well and a late second quarter delivery date is expected.