Surface sampling returned exciting grades of up to 6.2 grams per tonne gold and 269 g/t silver from an epithermal vein zone at El Palmar.
The outcropping, well-mineralised epithermal gold-silver find has now been interpreted to cover a large area of at least 600 metres by 400m located along strike from the T1 porphyry deposit already discovered by Sunstone at El Palmar.
Managing director Malcolm Norris says the new epithermal prospect’s location relative to the porphyry deposit bears significant geological parallels with Sunstone’s Limon gold-silver epithermal discovery at Bramaderos in southern Ecuador.
Sunstone recently announced an exploration target for Limon of between approximately 30 and 44 million tonnes at a grade of between 0.9 and 1.2 g/t gold equivalent for between 0.9 and 1.7 million gold equivalent ounces.
“This is a highly promising result with immense upside. These results demonstrate high grades and significant scale. We will now move quickly to prepare it for drilling in the new year.”
Exploration involving mapping and channel sampling in October and November 2023 has focused on looking for extensions of the T1 mineralised porphyry dykes along these northwestern faults.
This work helped identify the potential for extensions of untested porphyry mineralisation adjoining and extending northwest from the T1 porphyry system.
A number of mineralised intermediate sulphidation epithermal veins have been mapped and sampled in this area, where hot mineralising fluids are expected to have migrated up to shallower levels along northwestern-trending faults.
Mapping is identifying both northwestern- and northeastern-trending faults off the north-west side of T1 that exhibit epithermal veining with demonstrated gold and silver mineralisation.
One of the most active explorers currently working in Ecuador, Sunstone has commenced a new work program at the Verde Chico project, located between 2 and 7km west of El Palmar.
Previously explored by Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) in the early 1990s and by Canadian junior Balaclava Mines later in the same decade, the concession covers 2,872 hectares.
The historical exploration comprised reconnaissance sampling, followed by trenching and some drilling (total 4,435m), and identified a significant epithermal gold system.
Notable results included 24m at 21.1 g/t gold and 39m at 3.1 g/t gold.
Drilling results included 52.5m at 1.3 g/t gold from 2m, and 41.5m at 1.3 g/t gold from 1m.
Sunstone’s new exploration program will investigate additional targets outside the area of historically identified gold mineralisation which covers only 55 of the 2,872 hectare concession.
The first phase of work is exploring the area to the south and southwest of the known gold mineralisation.
Of particular interest is the Toachi Fault zone, a regional controlling structure for significant porphyry and epithermal mineralisation at El Palmar and SolGold’s Cascabel project that transects the Verde Chico concession.
The El Corazon gold mine, which is currently operating and has been mined for over 20 years, is believed to have contained between 300,000 and 500,000 oz of gold and is also related to the regional Toachi fault system.
The mine is located between the El Palmar and Verde Chico concessions.
