Falcon Gold Corp (TSX-V:FG, OTC:FGLDF) said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to acquire the Viernes project located 122 kilometres (km) southeast of Antofagasta City in northern Chile.
The exploration company said the project presents a “tremendous opportunity to explore for potential bonanza-grade with epithermal low to intermediate sulfidation gold-silver, and porphyry copper-molybdenum mineralization in one of South America's greatest mineral endowed Paleocene-Eocene belts.”
The project is located within a world-class cluster with extensive development by Yamana Gold (TSX:YRI), BHP, Rio Tinto and Antofagasta, Falcon noted. It may also host similar geochemical and structural features to the adjacent epithermal vein-hosted gold-silver producing El-Peñon mine, it added.
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"The Viernes project has the makings of a contender in a world-class district, not only is it adjacent to majors such as Yamana's El-Peñon gold-silver mine, which produces 160,000 ounces of gold per year and 5,000,000 ounces of silver, it's also just 30 km from the Escondida porphyry copper-gold-moly cluster, the largest copper producing hub in the world operated by BHP and Rio Tinto,” Falcon CEO Karim Rayani said in a statement.
“It's a very competitive area as it's controlled by the majors and almost impossible to get ground of this size," he added.
Viernes encompasses 13 claim blocks covering 3,300 hectares (ha). The west portion of the project offers prospectivity for epithermal gold veins as evidenced by outcrops of the Chile-Alemania Paleocene volcano-stratigraphic sequence, which is the same host rock at the El-Peñon gold mine. Additionally, large Eocene Monzodiorite rocks are also highly prospective for porphyry gold-copper mineralization, the company said.
Falcon said that since the 1990s the area has produced 30.6 million tons of copper, which is 57 times Canada’s annual production. It has produced 9.2 million ounces of gold, 1.5 times Canadian production, as well as 129.3 million ounces of silver, 8.6 times Canadian production. It has also generated multiple discoveries.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com