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Earlier this month Mantoro Precious Metals (TSXV: MNTR) reported results from the first drill hole at the La Escarcha gold deposit on its Golden Hill project in Bolivia, 140 km northeast of Santa Cruz, the country’s second-largest city.
The first drill hole returned 4.69 metres of 5.15 grams gold per tonne starting 171.5 metres downhole, including 2.2 metres of 9.38 grams gold, in drill hole GH0003, confirming high-grade gold mineralization below the La Escarcha mine, which was mined from 2007 to 2020 via small scale surface and underground workings.
The initial results, the company said, were similar to its 2021 metallurgical study based on a 10-tonne underground bulk sample that averaged a head grade of 5.53 grams gold by fire assay.
Additional drill results released on Wednesday demonstrated “consistent gold assay results across robust widths beneath the historical open pit mining at La Escarcha,” Christopher Wilson, the company’s chairman and chief geologist, commented in a news release.
Highlights included 4 metres grading 6.46 grams gold from 76 metres downhole in GH0006, including 2 metres of 12.73 grams gold; and 8 metres of 3.78 grams gold from 111 metres in GH0005. Drill hole GH0002 returned 6.13 grams gold over 2.40 metres from 120 metres; including 1.14 metres of 12.65 grams gold and drill hole GH0001 cut 1 metre of 16.7 grams gold from 108 metres.
Mineralization at Golden Hill, which is situated in the Bolivian Pre-Cambrian Shield, is of greenstone hosted orogenic type, and gold is contained within one to five metre-wide sub-vertically dipping quartz shear zones.
The vein system has been traced for over 4 km, the company says, located in the hanging wall of a regional controlling fault to the west. Mantoro notes that the style of mineralization can be seen across the region, including 2 km to the north of the property at the Puquio Norte gold mine, which between 1997 and 2003 produced roughly 350,000 oz. gold.
In addition to La Escarcha, where five veins were mined through limited underground development to 60 metres below surface, several veins were mined on the property via shallow open pits over a strike length of 3 kilometres. In addition, the company has identified a number of other exploration targets at Golden Hill, including Gabby, Garrapatillia, Brownfield and Westfield.
Mantoro holds an option to acquire 80% of Golden Hill.
