Lumina Gold Corp to operate six drill rigs at Cangrejos site
Lumina Gold Corp has secured two additional drill rigs to expedite the previously announced 30,000-metre drill program at its Cangrejos project in Ecuador.
The program will now use six drill rigs beginning early next year. The two active rigs at site have drilled approximately 2,700 metres, with five diamond drill holes completed and two in progress. A third rig is on site and is being mobilised to the Gran Bestia deposit.
As previously stated, the infill program is designed to convert the project's Inferred mineral resource estimate to the measured or Indicated categories, for inclusion in a pre-feasibility study. Additionally, drill holes will also step-out on the existing mineral resource laterally, provide further material for metallurgical testing and be used for advancing geotechnical and hydrogeological studies.
The addition of two rigs allows for metallurgical testing and geotechnical data collection to take place earlier. These critical-path items will allow Lumina to bring these components forward in the PFS schedule.
Recent mineralogical modelling work at the poject has improved Lumina's plan for mineral resource expansion. The work revealed that the highest gold grades coincide with a bornite mineral core at the Cangrejos deposit. At Gran Bestia, a similar bornite core has not yet been located, which may indicate potential for discovering a higher grade area.
These observations further reinforce the Company's rationale to prioritise the step-out drilling scheduled to take place to the northwest of the currently drill-defined deposit. At Gran Bestia, the estimated mineral resource blocks to the northwest end parallel to the last vertical hole. Lumina will focus on locating the potential higher-grade bornite core at Gran Bestia with step-out drilling in the northwest direction.
The Gran Bestia deposit's mineral resource estimate currently has 1.5 Moz in Indicated gold out of the Project's 10.4 Moz of Indicated gold and 3.1 Moz in Inferred gold out of the Project's 6.7 Moz of Inferred gold.
The Exploration Investment Protection Agreement (EIPA) covers a minimum investment of US$36m from Lumina for the period 2019-2024 and also covers investments by the Company in Ecuador from December 2010 to the end of 2018.
The agreement also extends to any additional investments made by Lumina during the term and beyond. The company has invested approximately US$18m from January 1, 2019 to September 30, 2021 in Ecuador and recently completed financing to continue work on drilling and engineering in order to complete a Pre-feasibility study by early 2023.
Lumina Gold Corp is a Vancouver-based precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on the Cangrejos Gold-Copper Project located in El Oro Province, southwest Ecuador.
SolGold - a large and active concessionaire in Ecuador - has announced it is using its "successful and cost-efficient blueprint established at Alpala, and Cascabel generally" to explore for additional world class copper and gold projects across the country.
The company wholly owns four other subsidiaries active throughout Ecuador that are now focussed on a number of high priority copper and gold resource targets, several of which it believes have the potential, subject to resource definition and feasibility, to be developed in close succession or even on a more accelerated basis compared to Alpala.