Mining

EHR Resources advances drilling at La Victoria gold-silver asset in Peru

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By Lorna Nicholas - 

EHR Resources has completed the first hole in its second diamond drilling program at the La Victoria project in Peru.

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EHR Resources (ASX: EHX) has progressed its second drilling campaign at its La Victoria gold-silver project in Peru, with the first hole at the Rufina prospect completed and preparations advancing for drilling to begin at the San Markito target.

La Victoria encompasses 89.3 square kilometres in Peru’s north central mineral belt, 600km from Lima.

EHR has cemented a 10% interest in the project by funding the first phase reconnaissance drilling program, which was finished in January this year and included 2,261m of diamond drilling for eight holes across 800m of strike at Rufina.

During reconnaissance drilling at Rufina, notable intersections pulled up were 3.4m at 7.31 grams per tonne gold, 1.6m at 4.31g/t gold, and 1m at 4.31g/t gold.

EHR has also undertaken regional sampling, which firmed up the Rufina Eastern target with almost three-quarters of the 117 channel samples taken returning “significant” gold values.

Better samples included 0.80m at 27.24g/t gold, 0.25m at 29.02g/t gold and 0.15m at 38.55g/t gold.

In the current campaign, 2,000m of drilling has been designated to test the potential core of the Rufina Eastern mineralised system.

A further 2,000m will be carried out at San Markito once final permits have been received.

Assays are pending from the first hole of the current campaign, with the second hole underway.

Magnetic surveys and mapping have pinpointed 18 major target zones to investigate within the project.

In addition to the current drill targets, other priority prospects include Victoria and Victoria South, and Ccori Orcco.

TSX-V listed Eloro Resources holds the rights to the project and EHR is securing a 25% stake via a staged earn-in process.

Playing with the majors

Major gold operators possess either mines or advanced deposits close to where the joint venture is advancing La Victoria.

The major players in the region include Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) and its Yanacocha gold operation, which Newmont claims is South America’s largest gold mine.

Another major is Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX) and its Lagunas Norte asset, which produced 387,000 ounces of gold in 2017. EHR pointed out Lagunas Norte is in a similar geological setting to La Victoria.

EHR Resources’ share price was up 2.15% to A$0.095 by mid-morning trade.