Exeter Resource extends higher grade gold-copper zone at Caspiche to the east

Shares in Exeter Resource (AMEX:XRA, TSX:XRC) trended slightly lower in opening deals this morning, but this certainly wasn’t a reaction to drill results released this morning which continued to extend a higher grade zone at the Caspiche Gold-Copper deposit in Chile. Like many companies, overriding movements in the wider market have taken precedent over company specific news in recent weeks.

Fortunately for shareholders in Exeter, despite the wider turmoil in global equity markets, the price of gold continues to perform well, and is one of the few asset classes rising this morning in North America.  The stronger gold price, combined with Exeter’s update helped the company’s share price recover from an initial dip and is currently up 0.4%.

Drill results this morning emanated from the high grade zone at the Caspiche project where the company is focused on both upgrading the current resource from inferred to indicated and adding to the total gold-copper resource.

Highlights included drill hole CSD062 which cut 624 meters grading 0.85 grams per tonne gold and 0.28% copper from a depth of 424 meters. This included a higher grade 400 meter intercept grading 1 grams per tonne gold and 0.33% copper from 544 meters.  Meanwhile, in drill hole CSD063, Exeter reported an impressive 868 meters grading 0.6 grams per tonne gold and 0.33% copper from 404 meters, including 400 meters @ 0.69 grams per tonne gold and 0.38% copper from 594 meters.  The two holes were drilled east of the previous boundary of the known resource.

"CSD062 and CSD063 reflect excellent results at a higher grade than was indicated by our current block model of the deposit. As such they are likely to extend the higher grade central core of the system to the east,” Justin Tolman, Caspiche Project Manager stated. “Furthermore, as noted in our last release, copper grades continue to increase markedly to the east relative to other parts of the deposit. Clearly further drilling to the east of CSD062 is required to define the limits of the deposit.”

For the moment Exeter has suspended drilling until the end of the winter season in Chile. In the meantime, the company has further assay results pending, and has now completed more than 20,000 meters of drilling since the last resource estimate. 

The company has already defined a NI43-101 compliant indicated resource of 785 million metric tons grading 0.57 grams per tonne gold, 1.33 grams per tonne silver, including 690 million metric tons grading 0.23% copper, plus an additional 688 million metric tons in the inferred category.