Horizonte Minerals kicks off drilling programme at Falcao gold project in Brazil |
Horizonte Minerals (LON:HZM), the AIM and TSX quoted exploration and development company working in Brazil, has begun a 3,000m diamond drilling programme at its Falcao gold project in the southern part of the Carajas mining district in northern Brazil, in joint venture with industry giant AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU). The news pushed the Horizonte share price up by 2.5% to 15.5p. Broker FinnCap said it expected the results of the drilling to be announced towards the end of Q3 and reiterated its valuation of 36 pence per share.
Falcao lies over a structurally complex window on the eastern end of the Serra da Inaja Greenstone Belt. The initiation of the 3,000m drilling programme follows detailed soil sampling, geologic mapping and an aeromagnetic and radiometric survey conducted in October 2010, which confirmed a 300m to 600m wide zone at greater than 50ppb with isolated results as high as 13.5 grams per ton of gold.
The current drilling programme has the objective of testing the gold soil anomaly which is currently 4km long (open to the east) and varies from 200m to over 800m in width at values of +50ppb gold. Ten drillholes between 200m and 300m depth have been spaced over a 4,700m strike extent to test the gold soil anomaly and its extension to the east. Horizonte said that given the highly lateritised terrain and lack of outcrop over a large part of the anomaly, the interpretation of the detailed aerogeophysics and multi-element soil geochemistry have played an important role in the positioning of drillholes.
David Hall, Horizonte’s chairman, said: “The initiation of the diamond drilling programme represents an important milestone for Falcao as it will provide the first indications of the style and controls on the mineralisation. The drilling programme will test for mineralisation at various locations along the 4,700m strike allowing an evaluation and prioritisation of areas for follow up drilling with the aim of proving the economic prospectivity of the project.”
The Falcao project is a joint venture between Horizonte and Anglogold which was signed in August 2010. It gives AngloGold the right to earn into 51% of the project by investing US$4.5 million over three years. AngloGold has the option of obtaining a further 19%, taking it to 70%, by funding a pre-feasibility study within three years of the vesting date. Under the terms of the agreement, AngloGold was required to invest a minimum of US$900,000 within the first year, which it has already achieved.
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