It’s the calm before the storm for Sable Resources Ltd (TSX-V:SAE), the Vancouver-based mining and exploration company with extensive interests in projects in Argentina and Mexico.
Sable is planning to drill a minimum of around 25,000 metres (m) in three different projects during the upcoming South American field season. Fieldwork will recommence in September with drill target definition work at Los Pumas, a new project found by Sable’s exploration team within the regional properties located 21 kilometres (km) south of Don Julio.
Drilling at its flagship El Fierro project in the historical artisanal mining district in Argentina’s northern San Juan Province was stopped for the South American winter and will recommence in October.
The company is also preparing to move forward with drilling at two other projects in the pro-mining province. Multiple targets have been defined at the Don Julio and La Poncha projects and final drill target definition work will be completed from October to December, with the drilling expected to commence in early 2022.
CEO’s long, successful history in mining exploration
“It’s a long process to get to the drilling stage; when the rigs are turning in three different high-quality projects a big discovery can happen,” Sable president and CEO Dr Ruben Padilla told Proactive Investors in an interview.
“We take advantage of this time to prepare for the upcoming season in September. We’ve compiled and interpreted all data, planned new drill holes, signed a contract with the drillers and a geophysical company, and we’re organising the logistic of three camps."
Padilla is no stranger to mineral exploration, with over 35 years of global exploration experience having worked with some of the industry's largest names including BHP, AngloGold Ashanti (ASX:AGG), Fresnillo and the Osisko Group. He has built and led teams to numerous world-class discoveries, Sable has noted, and it is hoped that these will include new discoveries in San Juan.
El Fierro: second round of drilling at large epithermal vein field
At El Fierro, Sable currently controls 46,391 hectares covering all the historically mineralized areas and additional highly prospective ground over a large magnetic anomaly.
So far, it looks positive. Recent drill results at El Fierro are a good first step as it prepares to re-initiate drilling to understand the real potential of this large vein field, Padilla said.
Fieldwork conducted during 2020 and 2021 defined a vein field with over 8.5km of known mineralized veins within four important mineralized centres including Fierro Bajo, Fierro Alto, La Verde, and Lagunitas forming a district-scale footprint of 8.6km by 6.2km.
The first drilling campaign ever conducted at El Fierro completed 3,278m in 25 holes. Some of the significant intercepts include 546.78 grams per ton (g/t) silver equivalent (AgEq) over 9.95m including 1,429.2 g/t AgEq over 3.7m, 783.8 g/t AgEq over 1m, 640.76 g/t AgEq over 1.35m, and 971.33 g/t AgEq over 0.83m.
The next step at El Fierro is to drill to at least 15,000m to indicate the potential size of the deposit. If it’s successful with the campaign, Sable will continue with enough drilling to give it a measurable resource and one that could put a solid value on the project.
La Poncha: bulk tonnage gold-copper drill targets
At La Poncha, 50km south of the El Fierro project, Sable controls 18,114 hectares covering the two main historical zones of mineralization known as Poncha North and Poncha South
“La Poncha represents a cluster of porphyry – epithermal centres along the Miocene mineral belt that hosts the Filo del Sol deposit, that recently reported an intersect of 858m with 1.8% copper equivalent (CuEq)," Padilla noted.
"The two main targets at La Poncha present significant potential for the discovery of gold-(±copper) bulk-tonnage mineralization. Permitting is advancing well and we are looking forward to starting the next field season and drilling the first holes at La Poncha," he added.
The porphyry-epithermal footprint of Poncha Norte is represented by a gold-copper anomalism extending for over 2 times 1.2km, associated with well-defined alteration, magnetic and chargeability anomalies. At Poncha South, Sable has identified porphyry-style mineralization and extensions of the mineralization that were not previously recognized. Historical drill holes reported significant mineralized intercepts including 1.21 g/t silver over 266m, and 4.87 g/t silver over 12.15m associated with the silica-sericite alteration.
Sable is already planning its first drilling campaign at La Poncha for Q4, 2021 which will include around 5,000m testing all the main targets. The main focus at La Poncha is the discovery of bulk-tonnage, multi-million ounces gold porphyry deposits with copper credits.
Breaking the mould at Don Julio with South32
While Sable generally maintains 100% ownership of its development projects, at Don Julio, it has taken a different approach, taking on Australian diversified mining and metals company South32 as a joint-venture (JV) partner.
The project comprises a 58,000-hectare land package containing several bulk-tonnage copper-gold porphyries, silver-gold epithermal, and polymetallic skarn targets, which were generated from detailed mapping and geochemistry work over a period of two and a half years.
During the first half of 2021, the company completed 400km of UAV Mag survey, detailed structural mapping of the Fermin skarn target, reinterpretation of historical geophysics at the Heaven Hill area, and re-evaluation of other historical data. From October to December additional geophysical work and mapping will be completed as preparation for drilling in the first quarter of 2022.
“When you enter a JV, you give value away very early on. But the targets here are very big and this type of deposit could represent values of over a billion dollars,” Padilla explained. “Retaining 25% without putting in a cent made sense to us.”
Path to success: fully financed to complete the right work at the right projects
The drill programs at El Fierro and La Poncha will cost an estimated C$11 million over the next 12-14 months. However, Sable is cash-flush following a recent C$12.5 million private placement. Combined with cash in the bank and investments, Padilla said the company is well funded with about C$28 million. On top of that, the recent earn-in agreement with South32 at Don Julio gives the company access to enough funds to complete the necessary exploration work at the project.
With lots of the groundwork laid for the projects in 2021, Padilla agrees that 2022 could be a defining year for Sable.
In the meantime, preparations continue.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com