Heliostar Metals of Canada Drills 100.6 Meters of Oxide Gold Mineralization

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 9, Canada's Heliostar Metals announced the latest drilling results from the San Agustin gold mine in Durango, Mexico, identifying a new East Wall oxide gold mineralized zone east of the existing open pit and confirming mineralization extending beyond the reserve boundary in the Corner Expansion area. One drill hole in the East Wall area intersected 100.6 meters from surface grading 0.42 g/t gold equivalent. The company has expanded its mine-site resource definition and exploration drilling program to 25,000–30,000 meters, targeting a mine life extension of up to two years.

East Wall is a newly added priority exploration area located east of the existing open pit. Reverse circulation hole 26-SAGRC-815 intersected 100.6 meters from surface grading 0.42 g/t gold equivalent; hole 26-SAGRC-810 intersected 94.5 meters from surface grading 0.33 g/t. In addition, another hole returned 24.4 meters of mineralization starting at 105.2 meters depth grading 3.44 g/t gold equivalent. Drilling shows that mineralization in this area extends approximately 150 meters east of the existing pit and remains open.

Drilling in the Corner Expansion area extends southwestward around the existing mining reserve boundary. The latest drill holes, together with previous results, have outlined a mineralized trend extending approximately 200 meters beyond the existing pit boundary, with holes 26-SAGDD-014 and 26-SAGDD-016 further supporting the continuity of mineralization in this area. The company has also identified another higher-grade mineralized zone south of this area and plans to continue infill drilling.

This round of drilling covers nine target areas around the mine. As of the date of the announcement, the company has completed 217 drill holes totaling 22,118 meters. The assay results released in this announcement cover 164 drill holes totaling 16,970 meters across four areas: Corner Expansion, Phase 3 East, Phase 5 and East Wall. The Phase 3 East and Phase 5 areas also returned exploration results worthy of follow-up.

Based on the drilling performance in the Corner Expansion and East Wall areas, the company has expanded its original US$9.75 million drilling program, adjusting the overall meterage target to 25,000–30,000 meters. The additional work will continue to infill the discovered mineralized zones and test for the first time the MKT-2, La Isla and Phase 7 oxide gold targets, while also investigating sulfide mineralization beneath the oxide mineralized layer.

Two drill rigs are being used in this program: a reverse circulation rig primarily for resource definition drilling, and a diamond core rig for collecting core samples to further gather rock strength, hydrogeological and metallurgical test data. These data will be used to build resource models, conduct metallurgical assessments and engineering design, and evaluate pushback mining options beyond the existing open pit reserve boundary.

The company is currently conducting resource and reserve estimation, metallurgical studies, engineering design and mining permit amendments for the Corner Expansion and East Wall areas. Heliostar Metals expects these two areas to contribute approximately half of the additional mine life in its plan to extend the San Agustin gold mine's life by two years.