PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Challenger Exploration has reported a 2.1-million-ounce resource at its flagship Hualilan gold project, in Argentina.
The mineral resource estimate was based on 125 700 m of drilling from a 204 000 m diamond core drill programme, and Challenger told shareholders on Wednesday that the resource would be updated on the completion of the drill programme.
The mineralisation remains open in all directions, and there was clear potential for the resource estimate to grow significantly through extension and infill drilling, Challenger said.
“As much as I am delighted by this maiden resource it is an interim resource estimate. It includes only 126 000 m of our 204 000-m drill programme, covering 2.2 km of the 3.5 km of strike, ove rwhich the high-grade mineralisation has been intersected,” said Challenger MD Kris Knauer.
“With mineralisation open in all directions this interim resource estimate provides a window to the substantial potential at Hualilan. Importantly we have found significantly more high-grade skarn mineralisation than expected with it comprising more than half of this interim mineral resource estimate. Based on drilling since the mineral resource estimate cut-off date we expect this trend of significantly more skarn to continue, which will be major boost for the project.”