Great Southern Copper PLC (LSE:GSCU) has reported high-grade scout drilling results at its Teresita and Abundante prospects in Chile.
The early results appear to confirm the company’s high-grade copper and gold target models, Great Southern said, highlighting a vein intersected at Teresita which had grades up to 2.03 grams per tonne of gold and 1.31% copper.
Scout reverse circulation (RC) drilling confirmed the presence of an intrusive related gold-copper system (IRGS) at Teresita, with significant gold and copper results intersected in quartz-sulphide veins up to 15m wide. More detailed analysis of specific drill holes was provided in the company’s statement.
"These results have exceeded our expectations and more importantly confirm the target models that we have developed from our surface exploration work to date,” chief executive Sam Garrett said in a statement.
“Intersecting a 10-15m wide mineralised vein at shallow depths supporting grades over 2g/t Au and 1% Cu beneath a target outcrop 2m wide and assaying 0.6g/t Au is very encouraging."
Garrett added: "The Teresita scout RC results are very promising given the potential scale of the system mapped at surface, which to date demonstrates a cumulative strike length of over 5km.
"Given that the same style of IRGS mineralisation has been discovered at the Victoria prospect, these results are particularly exciting as they indicate that GSC's Especularita project hosts at least two of these large-scale, high-grade IRGS systems."
The company is planning follow-up exploration to define prospect-scale drilling. It said it will focus on delineating the vein targets in more detail for Phase 2 prospect-scale drilling programs.
Great Southern also expects that the exploration will include detailed soil geochemistry across the whole system and geophysics.