Explorator finds high-grade gold in search for copper

Gold grades reaching into the double and triple digits at the El Espino-Venus copper-gold project, in Chile, have prompted Explorator Resources (EXO-V, EXRAF-O) to focus more on the yellow metal in its 2008 drill program.

The most recent results included a 33-metre intercept grading 44.9 grams gold per tonne and 0.99% copper in hole MXE-63, including 10 metres grading 147.8 grams gold and 0.62% copper and 4 metres grading 364.3 grams gold and 0.18% copper.

Explorator chairman John Carlesso says the company’s effort s have been more about defining a copper resource since starting a 25,000-metre second-phase drill program earlier this year.

“Suddenly, we’ve come across this gold,” Carlesso says. “We were aware gold existed, but the grades so far were beyond our expectations for the short term.”

The company plans to make the most of the gold find, but has not given up on copper.

The latest assays sent Explorator shares up nearly 30%, or 24, to $1.03 on a trading volume of 800,000 shares.

Micon International has already begun a resource estimate on the property, which will likely be ready in February.

Carlesso hopes the report will have good news about the potential for a future gold resource, but the resource is focused on the oxide portion of the main copper zone.

Explorator plans to drill another 25,000 metres on the property, where known mineralization stretches 5 km long and 2 km wide.

The company began drilling around the centre and has now explored about 1 km of the deposit’s strike length.

The gold mineralization is open and Carlesso says the company will continue defining the eastern part of the Ravanales area of the property next year.

The gold intersection is hosted by silicified sediments near the base of a thick sedimentary package, which overlies the andesitic rocks that are the main hosts of the copper-gold mantos at El Espino.

There are nine small copper-gold mines in operation on the property, which together produce about 3,000 tonnes of ore per month. Lease agreements for the operations are in the previous owners’ names and will expire within two years.