Royal Road Minerals Limited (CVE:RYR) (OTCMKTS:RRDMF) (FRA:RLU) revealed that it has received its water concession and discharge permits for its upcoming drilling program at its Guintar-Niverengo project in Colombia.
In addition, the gold and copper exploration company said that the public hearing process for its nearby Margaritas gold project in Colombia is now done.
Royal Road’s Guintär, Niverengo and Margaritas (GNM) project area comprises the two contiguous Guintär and Niverengo concession contracts and the neighboring Margaritas title application area in the Anza mining district, 50 kilometers (km) west of Medellin, in the northern portion of Colombia’s prolific Middle Cauca belt.
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The titles were acquired when the company bought Northern Colombia Holdings Limited, an affiliate of AngloGold Ashanti. The GNM area is part of a strategic alliance between the company and Mineros SA, which allows Mineros to potentially acquire a 50% interest in the GNM project by providing $2.5 million in exploration funding. Royal Road is the operator of the strategic alliance.
“The company has now received the final drilling permits required for its planned follow-up drilling program at the Guintär project area,” said the company, adding that drilling is expected to kick off in early July. It will comprise 5,000 meters (m) of diamond drilling to test the deeper parts of the gold mineralizing system.
In the third quarter of 2020, Royal Road completed a 10-hole (1179-meter) scout drilling program on the Niverengo title. Drilling intersected skarn-style mineralization hosted primarily in folded calc-silicate sedimentary rocks and crosscutting east-west oriented pyrrhotite vein and breccia bodies with elevated gold, silver, and copper.
Significant intersections included drill hole NIV-DDH-007 at 14m showing 4.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent, NIV-DDH-015 at 10.8m at 3.4 g/t gold equivalent, and NIV-DDH-008 at 10m at 2.3 g/t gold equivalent.
Separately, the company said the public hearing process has now been rounded out at the Margaritas application area. The process of acquiring a mining concession contract requires a company to present a social and environmental management plan. The Secretary of Mines in Antioquia also has to seek the approval of local authorities, followed by a public hearing with local communities. The hearing for Margaritas was held on May 27.
Soil geochemical sampling is currently going on at Margaritas and the results suggest “a gold mineralized system in excess of 2 km long by 1 km wide” related primarily to “an intrusion-related breccia body.” Airborne magnetic data reveals a discrete regional magnetic high at Margaritas which correlates broadly to the newly identified soil geochemical anomaly and will represent an objective once drilling permits are in place, said the company.
"The integration and interpretation of new geological information at Guintär and Niverengo has combined to define some compelling new targets at depth," Royal Road CEO Tim Coughlin said in a statement.
"We look forward to drill-testing these targets early next month. We are grateful once again for the support of our local communities. The interaction at the recent public hearing was highly valuable, particularly in relation to our Royal Road accelerator initiative and its aims of diversifying local businesses and formalizing artisanal miners."
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive