Tesoro Resources confirms extension of gold mineralisation at Ternera deposit
Tesoro Resources has confirmed gold mineralisation at Ternera East extends over 600m of strike and remains open in all directions.
Assays from drilling at the Ternera gold deposit within the El Zorro project in Chile have confirmed an extension of mineralisation for owner Tesoro Resources (ASX: TSO).
Results from 10 diamond holes completed as part of an extensional and infill drilling program intersected multiple new and thick gold zones, and demonstrated the consistency of mineralisation with a 400m expansion.
Two holes were drilled in the west of the deposit and delineated shallow high-grade mineralisation which has been defined over 950m of strike and sits outside of the deposit’s existing mineral resource estimate.
Another two holes were drilled at the Ternera East target with both returning positive gold results from multiple mineralised zones.
A single hole was drilled approximately 400m south of the southern margin of the existing resource estimate and is the southern-most hole that Tesoro has drilled at Ternera.
It returned two small gold intercepts contained within faulted El Zorro Tonalite (EZT) which Tesoro determined to be “highly significant”.
“These intercepts provide evidence that the gold mineralising system at Ternera has potential to add additional resources to the south and more drilling is required,” the company said.
Assay highlights
Zone highlights were 2.7m at 6.76 grams per tonne gold from 188.3m, and 3m at 6.3g/t gold from 197m, contained within 12.95m at 3.65g/t gold from 187.05m; 1.45m at 9.69g/t gold from 414.5m, and 22m at 1.15g/t gold from 457m, contained within 91.2m at 0.54g/t gold from 388m; and 1.66m at 5.04g/t gold from 29.04m, and 5.65m at 4.08g/t gold from 118.7m, contained within 27.35m at 1.12g/t gold from 118m.
Drilling substantially expanded the Ternera zones and extended the system 400m south with a positive result of 0.41m at 2.6g/t gold.
Consistency of mineralisation
Managing director Zeff Reeves said he was impressed by the consistency of gold mineralisation.
“The more drilling we complete, the more we expand the existing zones with the potential to add significant ounces to our mineral resource estimate,” he said.
“Every time we drill a significant step-out hole we hit gold, demonstrating that the overall resource has exceptional growth potential and we are by no means finding the end of this deposit.”
Mineral resource update
He said the company was “rapidly progressing” an updated mineral resource following a total 152 diamond drill holes drilled for 57,760m at Ternera since release of the maiden estimate in July.
That estimate totalled 25.1 million tonnes at 0.8g/t gold for 660,000 ounces of contained metal.
Using a 0.5g/t gold cut-off, the resource totals 15.4Mt at 1.09g/t gold for 540,000oz.