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- Challenger Exploration (CEL) has intersected high-grade gold mineralisation at its flagship Hualilan Gold Project in Argentina
- So far, 16,000 metres of the current drilling program have been complete with an aim to uncover extensions to Hualilan historical resource estimate
- Work was completed across the Gap Zone, Main Mantro Cerro Norte, Magnata, the Sanchez Zone, Sentazon, and Muchilera
- Of the work completed, grades peaked at 613.3g/t silver, 53.1g/t gold, and 2.8 per cent zinc
- Challenger is up a healthy 15.8 per cent on the market, with shares trading for 22 cents
Challenger Exploration (CEL) has intersected high-grade gold mineralisation at its flagship Hualilan Gold Project in Argentina.
So far, 16,000 metres of the current 45,000-metre drilling program have been complete with an aim to uncover extensions to Hualilan historical resource estimate.
Work was completed across the Gap Zone, Main Mantro Cerro Norte, Magnata, the Sanchez Zone, Sentazon, and Muchilera.
Gap Zone
Drilling at the Gap Zone is aiming to target possible extensions to the skarn mineralisation.
Best results include four metres at 12g/t gold equivalent (11.6g/t gold, 10.5g/t silver and 0.7 per cent zinc) from 141 metres, including one metre at 45.6g/t gold, 40g/t silver, and 2.6 per cent zinc.
Main Manto Cerro Norte
Drilling at Main Manto Cerro Norte intersected a new zone of skarn mineralisation above the main limestone unit.
Drilling intersected a best result of five metres at 12.3g/t gold equivalent (12.2g/t gold and 7.2g/t silver) from 35 metres, including one metre at 53.1g/t gold and 18g/t silver.
Magnata
Work at Magnata was designed to test for splays off the Magnata fault and confirm whether historical drilling has not been sampled.
This work returned a number of significant results with a peak of 14.7 metres at 3.3g/t gold equivalent (3.2g/t gold, 3.3g/t silver and 0.1 per cent zinc) from 64 metres including 0.9 metres at 50.7 gold equivalent (50.3g/t gold, 27.2g/t silver and 0.2 per cent zinc).
Sanchez Zone
The Sanchez Fault spans 500 metres and has only been drilled 50 metres sub-surface over less than 50 metres of strike.
The first hole drilled returned 69 metres at 4.8g/t gold equivalent including four metres at 48g/t gold equivalent.
Sanchez is a priority target for Challenger as it is high-grade, extensive, continuous, and remains open at depth.
Sentazon and Muchilera
Drilling at Sentazon and Muchilera returned 1.3 metres at 6.3g/t gold equivalent (5.5g/t gold, 75.6g/t silver and 0.1 per cent zinc) from 22.5 metres, and 2.2 metres at 2.4g/t gold equivalent (2.1g/t gold, 2.4g/t silver, and 0.6 per cent zinc).
Infill drilling will now target and better define the plunging shoots which control the mineralisation, as well as test the 300 metres of unexplored strike.
“Another round of impressive drilling results that reinforce our view that we have a much larger gold system than originally anticipated. We are yet to define the limits of the mineralisation within the current two kilometres of strike which all of the has been focused,” Managing Director Kris Knauer said.
“We continue to deepen our understanding of the system with drilling, which continues to increase our confidence that the Magnata and Sanchez Faults have the potential to add significant high-grade ounces,” he added.
Challenger is up a healthy 15.8 per cent on the market, with shares trading for 22 cents at 1:06 pm AEDT.
