Great Southern Copper PLC (LSE:GSCU) has started diamond drilling at the Mostaza mine ar Especularita project in Chile targeting high-grade Cu-Ag-Au mineralisation
Hole CNG25-DD001 is already in progress to confirm historical drilling grades and thickness while step-out holes are designed to extend the known mineralised zone to depth and along strike.
Initial plans are for up to 5 to 10 diamond drill holes covering up to 500-1,000 metres.
Historical (1981) resource estimates for Mostaza suggested 190,600 tonness of measured & indicated sulphide with grades of 1.2% copper, 80 g/t silver, and 0.45 g/t gold, plus an additional 63,000t of inferred sulphide resource at depth with mineralisation open in all directions.
At the Viuda prospect, also within the Especularita project, scout RC drilling has been completed and successfully identified porphyry-type alteration in all drill holes. Assay results are awaited.
Sam Garrett, Chief Executive Officer of Great Southern Copper, said: "We are excited to start the new year with the diamond drilling programme at Mostaza mine.
“Historical drilling at Mostaza has clearly not tested the extents of mineralisation and was focussed on high-grade lenses ignoring broader zones of copper-silver mineralisation.
"Diamond drilling will initially focus on confirming historical grades and drilling out the known high-grade copper-silver-gold mineralisation at the Mostaza mine, before testing along trend to the south where our recent exploration results have confirmed evidence of similar mineralisation at surface.
"The Viuda scout RC drilling programme was completed just before Christmas and successfully identified porphyry style alteration in all the holes. All samples are at the laboratory and we look forward to reporting the results of this work soon."