Orosur Mining receives water exploration permit for Pantanillo, further de-risking project

Gold miner Orosur Mining (LON:OMI, CVE:OMI) took a further step towards permitting its Pantanillo project  - as it received a water exploration permit from the Chilean authorities.

The granting of the permit represents another vital step towards de-risking the project, the South America focused firm said today.

The company also revealed a summer exploration campaign beginning this month (November) to test prospective new target areas at Pantanillo.

Exploration at the project in the last two years has been focused on defining a measured and indicated resource of 45.9 million tonnes at 0.69 grammes of gold per tonne for 1.0 million ounces at Pantanillo Norte.

Last month, Orosur signed a contract with lithium focused LUMAX S.A and another two partners to form a consortium to explore for water in the Cienaga Redonda basin, which is close to the Pantanillo project.

Following this, the Chilean Government Water Administration allowed the consortium to explore for water on a 4.98 hectare land package in the Cienaga Redonda basin for 24 months assuming exploration begins within seven months.

Both companies will share water rights equally up to a rate of 120 litres per second. If available water exceeds that number, Orosur will retain 60 litres per second and the exploration costs will be split proportionally to the amount of water retained by each company.

The 60 litres per second flow rate is expected to support a heap leach project of approximately 15 million tonnes per annum.

This summer's exploration campaign, said Orosur, will focus on testing prospective new porphyry target areas aimed at increasing the firm's existing oxide and mixed ore resource.

Field work will focus on the Pantanillo Central, Quebrada Pantanillo, Oro 52 and areas surrounding the Pantanillo Norte discovery area and drilling is expected to begin in January next year, it said.

Orosur's Chilean properties were acquired as part of the Fortune Valley deal and chief among them is the Pantanillo project that comprises 11,750 of hectares optioned from Anglo-American.

It is located in the Maricunga Belt, an area rich in gold which is home to 60 million ounces of the metal.

First phase drilling has defined a maiden JORC resource of 1.05 million ounces at Pantanillo Norte -  a small part of the total exploration area, and a second phase aims to build on this early impressive progress.