Atacama Pacific Gold (ATM-V) is reporting positive results from third-phase drilling at its Cerro Maricunga gold project 140 km northeast of Copiapo, Chile.
Located in the Maricunga mineral belt, the 158-sq.-km project sits 20 km south of Kinross Gold’s (K-T, KGC-N) La Coipa silver-gold mine and 30 km northwest of the major’s Lobo-Marte project. The belt hosts resources exceeding 90 million oz. gold.
On March 9 the junior released 19 assays, with 17 hitting significant mineralization from the project’s three main zones: Crux (south), Phoenix (central) and Lynx (north).
Standout holes returned 1.02 grams gold per tonne over 144 metres from the Crux zone, including 34 metres at 2.11 grams gold, and 0.74 gram gold over 278 metres from the Lynx zone, including 46 metres at 1.29 grams gold.
The first 144-metre highlight graded 1.02 grams from a new higher-grade core zone at Crux. The higher-grade zone measures 300 by 200 metres, and extends to depth.
The company also widened the Crux zone by 100 metres to the northeast. Now the zone is over 450 metres wide and remains partially open northeast, and open to depth.
Carl Hansen, the company’s president and CEO, says discovering the high-grade zone and widening the Crux zone are “positive surprises.”
At the south end of the Phoenix zone, Atacama Pacific discovered a broad zone of lower-grade mineralization adjacent and parallel to the main mineralized trend. The discovery hole intersected 116 metres grading 0.36 gram gold.
Atacama Pacific started the ongoing 42,000-metre, third-phase program last November, and has completed more than 27,000 metres so far.
The program is estimated to cost US$24.5 million and could be done by May.
An engineering scoping study is underway at the project, with completion expected before July. Recent metallurgical tests show the deposit is amenable to heap leaching, with gold recoveries around 80%.
In the third quarter the junior expects to upgrade its maiden resource, which sits at 92.8 million indicated tonnes grading 0.54 gram gold for 1.6 million oz. gold, plus 116.7 million tonnes of 0.52 gram gold for 1.9 million oz. gold.
On news of the drill results, Atacama Pacific moved up 9% to $4.10 per share during early afternoon trading, before dropping near its previous close of $3.75.
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