‘Exciting times ahead’ for ASX debutant Tesoro Resources as it gears up to advance El Zorro gold project
Tesoro Resources is already on the ground drilling at its El Zorro gold project in Chile.
Gold explorer Tesoro Resources (ASX: TSO) has made its ASX debut after raising $4.63 million to fund exploration plans at its flagship El Zorro gold project in Chile.
The company raised $4.63 million via the issue of 154 million shares at $0.03 each and will have $4.02 million in cash after repaying creditors and capital raising costs.
Commenting on the listing, Tesoro managing director Zeff Reeves said there are “exciting times ahead” as the company moves into the next stage of its exploration at El Zorro.
He added the company would be “aggressively” exploring the project with plans to release a gold resource later this year.
Chile-based gold projects
Tesoro is focused on advancing its El Zorro and Espina gold projects within Chile’s Coastal Cordillera, with $3 million of the proceeds to be used to fund exploration over three years.
Prior to listing, Tesoro had completed a 16-hole diamond drilling program at El Zorro, which returned thick gold mineralised intersections.
Better results were 98.3m at 1.58 grams per tonne gold, including 30.3m at 3.03g/t gold; 84.3m at 1.3g/t gold, including 4m at 8.5g.t gold; and 58.8m at 1.7g/t gold, including 20.3m at 4.5g/t gold.
Another drilling program is already underway with 10-holes planned test the Coquetas mineralised zone further across 800m of strike and 200m depths.
Assays from this campaign are anticipated within six-to-eight weeks.
In addition to drilling, rock chip and outcrop sampling was undertaken with results from 2,200 samples expected within four-to-six weeks.
Over at Espina, two major gold mineralised trends have been identified via detailed geological mapping and surface sampling.
Tesoro plans to kick-off an initial drill program at Espina during the year.
New leadership, new focus
Former Australian jeweller Plukka (ASX: PKA) has become a Chile-focused gold explorer via a reverse takeover of Tesoro Resources, which was established in 2017.
As part of the shift in focus, Plukka’s Cameron Williams and Peter Ruse have resigned from the board.
Experienced geologist Mr Reeves has stepped up as managing director and joining him as non-executive director is Geoff McNamara, who is a geologist with more than 25 years’ experience in the resource sector.
With more than 20 years’ in resources, Mr Reeves has worked on projects across all facets of development including greenfield exploration through to discovery, production and even closure and has spent a large part of the last 15 years operating in Chile and Brazil.