Argentina's Filo del Sol Launches New 55,500-Meter Drilling Campaign

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Vicuña Corp. has announced the launch of a new high-intensity exploration program for 2026–2027, with approximately 55,500 meters of diamond drilling planned at Filo del Sol and surrounding areas over the next 12 months. As weather conditions improve at high altitudes, the project will resume large-scale field operations, with up to 8 drill rigs deployed simultaneously, and some drill holes will exceed 1,500 meters in depth.

This round of drilling is mainly concentrated at the Filo del Sol deposit and covers the high-altitude mining areas on both the Argentine and Chilean sides, at operating elevations of approximately 4,500–5,500 meters. Vicuña has selected Boart Longyear Argentina and Hy-Tech Griffith Drilling Argentina through a competitive tender to undertake the drilling work, with tender evaluation criteria including technical, commercial, safety and occupational health, sustainable development, and local development aspects. Both contractors will deploy high-capacity drill rigs, with a focus on controlling deep-hole deviation and core recovery rates.

Filo del Sol is an important component of the Vicuña project. Vicuña is owned 50/50 by BHP and Lundin Mining, and the project integrates the Filo del Sol and Josemaría copper-gold deposits, spanning San Juan Province in Argentina and the Atacama Region in Chile. The integrated technical report submitted by Lundin Mining in March this year shows that the project adopts a phased development plan: Phase 1 focuses on building the Josemaría open-pit mine and concentrator; Phase 2 develops the leachable oxide ore at Filo del Sol and builds SX/EW copper-gold-silver recovery facilities; Phase 3 further expands processing capacity and develops the sulphide resources at Filo del Sol.

As of the latest resource database cutoff, the Filo del Sol resource model has been established based on approximately 224,800 meters and 435 drill holes. Across the entire Vicuña project area, more than 358,000 meters of drilling and 1,051 drill holes have been completed cumulatively; after the previous resource database cutoff, the project added another 83 drill holes and approximately 49,000 meters of drilling.

Vicuña's latest technical study also shows that the subsequent development of Filo del Sol will be advanced in coordination with Josemaría infrastructure. The Filo del Sol oxide ore development plan corresponds to Phase 2 of the project, while the sulphide resources will be integrated with the expanded centralized processing system in Phase 3, supported by regional infrastructure including seawater desalination, water conveyance, and concentrate transport.