Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX:STM) has fielded “extremely promising” gold and copper assays from drilling at the edge of the large T2 geophysical anomaly at its El Palmar porphyry gold-copper discovery in northern Ecuador.
The first three holes drilled at the new target have returned broad gold and copper intersections from the top and the edge of the target.
A highlight was 767 metres at 0.21 g/t gold and 0.04% copper from 24 metres in hole EPDD024 with a number of higher grade intercepts within.
Highlights
The assays reveal gold grades of up to 2 metres at 3.2 g/t from 72 metres and 13.5 metres at 1.1 g/t from 97.5 metres from the edge of the anomaly, which is one kilometre long by 450 metres wide.
There is a clear transition from high-level porphyry-epithermal gold to deeper copper-gold.
The company notes the anomaly is bound by the regionally-significant Toachi Fault zone and associated orthogonal structures – a scenario it says is strongly similar to the 3 billion tonnes SolGold Alpala copper-gold porphyry deposit, within the Cascabel project 65 kilometres to the northeast.
Recent preliminary age dating has confirmed that the mineralised gold-copper porphyry at Sunstone’s El Palmar project is the same geological age as Alpala.
Very prospective and very large
“These results are highly significant,” said managing director Malcolm Norris. “They confirm that the T2 target is mineralised, is very prospective and is very large.
“Independent datasets show that T2 could deliver a significant gold-copper porphyry discovery. The team at Sunstone are very excited by these recent results and looks forward to drilling the target in March.
“In the meantime, we will complete the current program at the Tituana epithermal target, where we have drilled an epithermal system that is mineralised. Assay results from the first three holes are expected in late March.”
The company has planned further drilling at the T2 prospect, which is scheduled to start next month.
Sunstone says it remains well funded, with A$11.2 million in cash and equities reported at December 31, 2022.