Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Challenger Exploration (CEL) receives assays from three holes drilled at the Verde zone within the Hualilan Gold Project in Argentina
- Since the zone was discovered earlier this year, the company has undertaken infill and extensional drilling to calculate a JORC inferred resource
- The results confirm wide zones of higher-grade mineralisation and extend the zone 50 metres south
- Drilling is ongoing with three rigs currently operating on the Verde zone
- Company shares are up 8.93 per cent to trade at 30.5 cents at 2:45 pm AEST
Challenger Exploration (CEL) has received assays from three holes drilled at the Verde zone within the Hualilan Gold Project in Argentina.
The Verde Zone was discovered at the start of the year and covers 1.5 kilometres of strike between two faults and mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth.
Since then, the company has undertaken infill and extensional drilling to calculate a JORC inferred resource along the entire Verde and Gap zone trend.
One hole intersected 49 metres at 2.4 grams of gold equivalent per tonne (g/t) from 310 metres including 2.9 metres at 17.7g/t gold equivalent from 312 metres. Challenger said this confirmed the presence of higher-grade mineralisation hosted in intrusives at depth.
The second hole intersected 13.9 metres at 2.4g/t gold equivalent from 258.6 metres including 10.3 metres at 3.2g/t gold equivalent from 262.2 metres. This hole extended the zone 50 metres to the south.
Hole GNDD-341 returned 47 metres at 1.1g/t gold equivalent from 78 metres including 5.5 metres at 6.7g/t gold equivalent from 81.5 metres.
Managing Director Kris Knauer said the results exceeded his expectations.
“The results from each of the first three of the 37 Verde zone drill holes, for which we are yet to receive final assays, have significantly exceeded our expectations with each hole producing an important outcome,” he said.
“The results confirm our model that we will find higher-grades at depth; extend the Verde Zone 50 metres south into the one gap in drilling where we have over 1.5 kilometres of strike; and demonstrate that earlier drilling at the Verde Zone was short of the main zone of mineralisation.”
Drilling is ongoing with three rigs currently operating on the Verde zone.
Company shares were up 8.93 per cent to trade at 30.5 cents at 2:45 pm AEST.
