Solvista Gold (SVV-V) rises on long gold-copper intercept at Caramanta
The intercept returned a great set of numbers: 456.7 metres averaging 1.01 grams gold per tonne, 0.21% copper, and 2.3 grams silver per tonne, starting essentially at surface. For the team at Solvista Gold (SVV-V), however, the real excitement is in the details: the core started with a long mineralized intercept from the known near-surface porphyry but finished with 74 metres of mineralization from another, deeper porphyry.
"What excites us here as geologists is that we've identified an additional mineralizing porphyry phase at depth that has some pretty interesting gold and copper values associated with it," said Solvista president and CEO Miller O'Prey in an interview. "The near-surface mineralization is great and it is important, but it's a relatively straight-forward story. The fact that we've found additional mineralization at depth I think speaks to the potential of the area."
O'Prey was discussing his company's Caramanta project, a 200-sq. km property 120 km south of Medellin in Colombia. The project sits in the middle of the Middle Cauca Belt, a historic gold district known for multi-phase porphyry deposits. AngloGold Ashanti (AU-NY) 24-million oz. La Colosa porphyry project is a prime example: its gold come from eight distinct porphyry phases.
The fact that multiple porphyry phases can produce such large deposits is precisely why O'Prey is excited about the latest results from Caramanta. Solvista just wrapped up an 8,000-metre drill program at the site. The first few holes targeted the El Reten area and results offered several suggestions that the project might have more porphyry phases to offer.
The first suggestion came from hole 1218, which returned that aforementioned 456.7 metres grading 1.01 grams gold, 0.21% copper, and 2.3 grams silver. The first few hundred metres of mineralization came from the known El Reten porphyry body, but the deepest part of the intercept – 74 metres grading 1.23 grams gold, 0.25% copper, and 2 grams silver – is from that second, deeper porphyry body that caught O'Prey's attention.
Nearby, hole 1220 cut 323.4 metres grading 1.34 grams gold, 0.21% copper, and 2.5 grams silver from surface. The upper part of the intercept – 80 metres averaging 2.32 grams gold, 0.36% copper, and 3.5 grams silver – extended the high-grade core of the main El Reten porphyry to the north, while the lower portion extended the zone at depth.
Hole 1221, meanwhile, extended the zone to the southwest when it returned 137 metres grading 0.88 gram gold, 0.19% copper, and 3.4 grams silver from surface.
Hole 1323 offered another indication of Caramanta's potential as a multi-phase porphyry system. Drilled from a new platform northwest of earlier holes, it returned 197.4 metres grading 0.58 gram gold, 0.12% copper, and 1.9 grams silver from the main El Reten body. Beneath that intercept, however, Solvista says strong potassic alteration of the volcanic rocks continued. Even though copper and gold were not present, the potassicly altered rocks contained significant molybdenum values. O'Prey says this is another reason to believe Caramanta may offer more mineralized phases at depth.
The company has already identified a good number of porphyry bodies at the site. In fact, Solvista's geologists believe they have found no fewer than nine porphyry bodies at El Reten alone. O'Prey says the nine bodies identified to date all bear slightly different mineralization. The varying geology and the number of bodies suggest to Solvista's team that Caramanta came from a "very long-lived, dynamic system."
The recent results follow some good numbers from Solvista's first drill campaign at Caramanta. The first hole into the project, released in September 2012, intercepted 149.7 metres grading 1.65 grams gold, 0.24% copper, and 2.9 grams silver starting 5 metres below surface. Below that, the drill encountered another mineralized body, returning 102 metres grading 0.37 gram gold, 0.12% copper, and 1.3 grams silver from 163 metres depth. Hole 2 was also noteworthy, returning 185.6 metres grading 1.22 grams gold, 0.24% copper, and 3.3 grams silver from 12 metres downhole.
Based on results from drilling and rock chip sampling, Solvista has traced El Reten on surface over an area measuring 430 metres by 360 metres. With numerous promising intercepts from just 17 reported holes, O'Prey's enthusiasm is understandable.
"I think what excites us the most about the Caramanta project is the information that's yet to come, from the other targets within the trend that we have drilled and those that we want to drill," he said. "Hopefully, over the next couple of months, we will be able to put out some results from those targets and other people will start to get a sense of what's got us so excited."
Solvista's recently completed drill program included an initial set of holes at two of those other targets. El Corral is 600 metres north of El Reten while Ajiaco Sur is another 400 metre north of El Corral. Results from these holes are pending, but Solvista say initial examinations of the core suggests similar alteration types to that found at El Reten, though with more copper and silver.
El Reten, El Corral, and Ajiaco Sur represent the three southernmost target areas at Caramanta, where Solvista has identified numerous porphyry indicators along a 3-km long trend. Solvista has now advanced two other targets along that trend to drill-ready status and the company plans to move its drill to these zones, known as Malabrigo and Casa Verde, in the third quarter of the year.
Solvista listed as a public company in May 2011, previous to which it operated privately as Norvista Gold. Norvista had a strategic alliance with Grupo de Bullet, a company led by Bob Allen. As an early mover in Colombia's gold space, Allen locked up a great deal of prospective ground in the country and put much of it into the Grupo vehicle.
After reviewing Grupo's extensive portfolio of properties, in 2009 the Norvista team inked a deal for Caramanta and for Guadalupe, a larger property 110 km northeast of Medellin. The projects were selected from Norvista's sizeable portfolio for their location (on the Middle Caucu Belt and within the known mining district of Antioquia) and their favorable initial exploration results. The properties also boast close proximity to paved highways and hydroelectric power.
The company became Solvista upon listing in 2011, at which time it also raised $15 million in its initial public offering. A subsequent private placement saw Kinross Gold (K-T) purchase 3.6 million units of Solvista, giving the major a 9.9% stake in the junior.
In February of this year, Solvista added $5.59 million to its coffers by selling 12.4 million units for 45¢ apiece. Each unit comprised a share and a full warrant exercisable at 60¢ for two years. With the raise, Solvista has roughly $4 million on hand, enough to fund its exploration goals for this year.
"It wasn't the easiest money we've ever raised," said O'Prey of the February financing. "But we did manage to raise it, which is important as it gives us enough money to do more drilling this year. We would like to be a bit more aggressive on that front, but the times are what they are, so we're focused on completing 4,000 metres this year. That will mean five targets that we'll have drilled by the end of the year. I don't think we'll get any of those targets to a 43-101 resource this year, but we'll be able to give the educated reader a good idea of the potential."
Solvista also just finished drilling at its other Colombian project, Guadalupe, where the company is probing a zone of structurally controlled high-grade gold and silver known as El Oso. El Oso appears to host two discrete, parallel mineralized structures that have returned such intercepts as 18.35 grams gold over 2.8 metres, 9.29 grams gold over 1.9 metres, and 3.02 grams gold plus169.8 grams silver over 2.1 metres.
Mineralization at El Oso consists of epithermal style quartz-sulphide veins and sulphide-bearing breccias. Solvista has now shifted its efforts at Guadalupe to mapping and sampling while it focuses on Caramanta. |
