Lucky Minerals Inc (CVE:LKY) (OTCPINK:LKMNF) (FRA:LKY) said it has identified the Wayka target, a new epithermal system in which initial assay results from surface outcrop panel samples have returned up to 2.90 grams per ton (g/t) gold at its 100%-owned Fortuna Property.
Fortuna comprises about 55,000 hectares in a known mineralized zone in southern Ecuador.
"Lucky Minerals is excited to have made this discovery of a previously unknown gold-bearing system based on surface outcrop sampling,” said the company's CEO Francois Perron in a statement.
“Our current work is focused on increasing our understanding of this system and to continue to extend the scale of the mineralized area. While still early in the program, we are pleased that a significant portion of the samples are mineralized with gold,” he added.
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Perron said this is the first set of results received as the company awaits results from another 38 samples sent for assaying.
He added: “Our work in the field continues and consists of further prospecting and mapping. We are also in the process of reviewing the data that we received in this particular area of Fortuna. This new target is of significant interest and we intend to start work on Wayka while we continue our prospecting and testing at the El Garo and Sherman prospects."
Lucky Minerals said the Wayka target consists of a large mineralized area within a surface expression presently estimated at 1.2 kilometers (km) long by about 0.5 km wide. It is characterized by outcrops of rhyolite with vuggy silica, breccias, alunite, and jarosite -- all typical of epithermal gold systems.
In the middle area lies a dacite porphyry and breccia zone which is approximately 600 meters (m) by 400m. To date the company has received a total of 12 rock assay results from ALS Chemex Labs.
As the geological work at Wayka is at an early stage, Lucky Minerals said the mineralized system is expected to improve as more detailed work is completed. Thus far, gold values have been observed not only within rhyolites but also in the contact zones and within meta-granites and schistose rocks.
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