Quarterly Report for the 3 Months ended 31 December 2024
Heliostar CEO, Charles Funk, commented, “At La Colorada, we are seeing the combined benefit of gold production at record prices and growth from the first significant investment into the project in many years. Our aggressive five-rig drill program is designed to increase the reserves of the Creston pit. Success to date in the shallow part of the pit could lower the upfront capital costs presented in the January 13th Technical Report. The Company will use the results of this drill program to finalize a Feasibility Study in mid-2025 and then make an expansion decision on La Colorada to 50,000-100,000 ounces per year of annual production. We are also hitting high grades and widths and deeper intercepts could drive underground mining optionality beyond the open pit. We will further test this target with additional drilling in this current drill program.”
Drill Results Summary
Mineralization at La Colorada’s Creston Pit is predominantly hosted in three veins: the North, Intermediate and South Veins (Figure 1). These veins trend northeast-southwest to east-west, dip northward and are surrounded by halos of smaller mineralized vein zones. The Creston Pit has historically mined oxide gold and silver from all three of these veins. A current Mineral Reserves of 312,000 ounces of gold grading 0.76 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 10.1 g/t silver is defined at the Creston Pit1.
Reviewing the expansion potential revealed two opportunities for reserve growth: near surface extensions of known veins where little or no drilling had been completed and upgrading and expanding mineralization beneath the pit. Both opportunities were defined using historical drilling, blasthole data, mining shapes, and the geological model.
High-density blast hole data strongly emphasizes the potential for a continuation of veins at shallow depth, defining elevated gold grades that continue to the edge of the pit walls where they remain open for expansion (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Plan view of the Creston Pit showing historic drilling, blast hole samples and Heliostar drillholes. Selected intercepts are labelled.
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Figure 2: Cross-section view of the eastern end of the Creston Pit highlighting the lack of previous drilling beyond the pit boundary. The section shows historic drilling, new Heliostar drillhole results and pit boundary for pit expansion.
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Forty-seven holes have been completed in the program to date, with results reported for twenty-three new holes in this release. A total of 6,452 metres have been completed to date in the program. The majority of the new drill holes targeted shallow extensions of the North, Intermediate and South Veins in areas considered to be waste in the reserve estimate of the current…
Read More: Quarterly Report for the 3 Months ended 31 December 2024