Anacortes Mining Corp announced that its wholly-owned Peruvian subsidiary, Aurifera Tres Cruces SA (ATC) has awarded the contract for drilling services to Remicsa Drilling SA for the Phase 1 drilling program at its Tres Cruces gold project in northern Peru.
Redrilsa will mobilize two Christensen CS14-C core rigs to site in early April, with drilling projected to begin by mid-April, the company said in a statement.
Drill roads and drill pads will be constructed by local contractor, Dakar Driller SAC.
WATCH: Anacortes Mining subsidiary Aurifera looks to start drilling at Tres Cruces in Peru
Both contractors will utilize local labor “to the greatest extent possible,” Anacortes told investors.
Final regulatory approvals for the drilling program are on track and are expected by early April, the company added.
The Phase 1 program is designed to confirm previous drilling results, expand oxide resources at edges of known mineralization, test targets beyond areas of known mineralization, convert indicated oxide resources to measured oxide resources, and obtain representative samples of “fresh” oxide samples for metallurgical testing, according to the firm.
“We are excited to have contracted with Redrilsa to carry out the Phase 1 drilling campaign,” said Jim Currie, CEO of Anacortes.
“Redrilsa is a very experienced drilling services provider and has carried out drilling at a number of projects and operations throughout Peru, and specifically in northern Peru near our Tres Cruces project. Our experienced and well qualified geology team are anxious to begin drilling to deepen holes that ended in wide zones of higher-grade mineralization, to test the extent of the deposit, and obtain fresh samples required for our upcoming metallurgical testing program.”
Tres Cruces was last drilled by Barrick Gold in 2008. To date, 371 holes have been drilled, for a total of 74,000 meters of diamond and reverse circulation drilling.
Anacortes is also conducting a property-wide exploration program consisting of geologic mapping and sampling, geochemistry, and geophysics to complement the previous exploration work done on the property from 1996 through 2008.
Tres Cruces is one of the highest-grade oxide deposits globally and hosts oxide plus sulphide indicated resources of 2,474,000 ounces at 1.65 grams per ton (g/t) gold, including 630,000 ounces of high-grade leachable gold at 1.28 g/t gold and inferred resources of 104,000 ounces at 1.26 g/t gold.
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