Challenger Exploration pulls up gold in first eight holes at Hualilan, extends known mineralisation

Challenger Exploration (ASX: CEL) has pulled up gold in the first eight holes of its current drilling program at the Hualilan gold project in Argentina, which the company claims has extended mineralisation in multiple directions.

This is the company’s second drilling campaign at the project and involves 85-holes for 7,500m.

The first eight holes were drilled at the southern portion of the project at the Cerro Sur target which remains open in all directions.

Better results were 8.3m at 17.7 grams per tonne gold, 257g/t silver and 0.3% zinc, including 5.5m at 26g/t gold, 355g/t silver and 0.4% zinc; and 3.8m at 7.4g/t gold, 78g/t silver and 3.6% zinc, including 2.6m at 10.3g/t gold, 114g/t silver and 4.9% zinc.

Drilling has now intersected gold over 1.8km of strike.

Challenger managing director Kris Knauer said the company was “delighted” with the early drill results.

“These promising results represent less than 10% of the planned program after the decision was made to increase the current program to approximately 85 drill holes.”

“With the exception of the one twin hole, drilled to assist with later JORC compliance, all materially extended the existing mineralisation.”

He added the 8.3m interval was one the best intersections seen to date at the project.

Advancing Hualilan gold project

Challenger noted the current drilling campaign at Hualilan was “progressing well” with 35 holes completed for 4,400m.

This includes four drill holes which are to provide samples for metallurgical testing.

Although the drilling remains unimpacted by COVID-19, Challenger noted there were some delays to assay turnaround times.

However, Challenger stated these delays were improving, with a company receiving a batch immediately prior to today’s announcement.

Hualilan is located in Argentina’s San Juan province and hosts a historic resource of 627,000oz contained gold at an average grade of 13.7g/t.

Challenger noted the resource is open in most directions.

The current drilling campaign aims to gather enough data to upgrade the historic estimate to a JORC-compliant resource.