Tesoro Gold (ASX: TSO) has reported assay results from a maiden diamond drilling program at the La Brea target within its El Zorro gold project in Chile, with all five holes intersecting favourable geology and wide alteration zones containing anomalous gold.
The results from 1,117 metres of drilling at La Brea mirror the early drilling signatures observed at the 2.0 million ounce Ternera gold deposit, approximately 15 kilometres to the south.
The company has completed the five-hole program that tested approximately 250m of strike and is planning additional drilling to further delineate La Brea, while continuing its current 38,000m campaign across.
Notable assay results include 1.96m at 2.17 grams per tonne gold from 197.50m, with the same hole delivering 0.60m at 4.19g/t gold from 51.4m, as well as 4.2m at 0.56g/t gold from 76.3m including 0.9m at 1.92g/t gold.
Other significant intercepts included 0.49m at 2.20g/t gold from 66.96m, and 0.75m at 1.43g/t gold from 198m.
Structural Corridor Shows Strong Potential
La Brea is located within the northern extent of the well-defined El Zorro gold corridor, which is characterised by multiple sub-parallel northwest trending fault zones, a 200m-wide alteration envelope, and numerous mineralised quartz veins.
Tesoro has delineated a prospective, gold bearing structural corridor along the northwest margin of the La Isla granodiorite intrusion, which it believes is related to the El Zorro Tonalite intrusions, which host much of the gold mineralisation at Ternera.
Current workstreams include detailed geological mapping, further surface sampling, and multi-element geochemical analysis to vector towards higher-grade areas for follow-up drilling.
Detail mapping, sampling, and gridded soil sampling programs are well advanced at Drone Hill and Pena Blanca to support final stages of planning for maiden drilling at these promising targets.
Tesoro has engaged a geophysical contractor to complete detailed helimagnetic and radiometric surveys across the broader project area, providing an enhanced dataset for target generation across the El Zorro district, with five drill rigs currently advancing infill and extensional programs at Ternera.
Three Concurrent Drilling Programs
Tesoro is currently operating three concurrent, fully funded diamond drilling programs scheduled for approximately 38,000 metres in total, along with approximately 20,000m of infill drilling to support pre-feasibility study workstreams.
Extensional drilling of approximately 6,000m aims to define and extend shallow northern and southern extensions and to test depth extensions to the existing Ternera deposit, while new discovery drilling totalling approximately 12,000m is focusing on priority undrilled targets and follow-up on previous results at the Kitsune, Calderillas, and Toro Blanco targets.
Managing director Zeff Reeves said the results from the first holes drilled at La Brea were “strongly reminiscent of the earliest drilling at Ternera”, which has since become a 2Moz deposit.
"All holes intersected favourable host rock, with extensive alteration and wide zones of anomalous gold mineralisation, including discrete higher-grade intercepts," he said.
"We continue to see clear evidence that El Zorro has the geological endowment to host multiple deposits, and today’s results reinforce the potential for a pipeline of future discoveries.”
