Location Salta Province, Argentina
Land Area 830 hectares
Property Description Gold-silver-copper prospect located near First Quantum’s Taca Taca project
Metals Gold, copper
Ownership Option to acquire 51% from Cascadero Minerals Corp.
Project Stage Exploration
Current Activities & Work Phase 2 drill program completed June 2022; reported initial assays August 2022
Permitting Drill permit received
Sarita Este is a gold-silver-copper exploration project located in northwest Salta Province, Argentina, near First Quantum’s Taca Taca project. Sarita Este sits at elevations between 3,550-3,750 meters above sea level. We are targeting a copper porphyry system with some similarities to Taca Taca in the northeast portion of the Sarita Este claim at the Kachi target and a high sulfidation gold-silver system in the southern portion of the concession at the Sico target.
Golden Minerals holds an option to acquire 51% of the Sarita Este concession from Cascadero Minerals Corporation. The agreement was signed in December 2019 and calls for Golden to spend at least $0.3 million in exploration expenditures and complete a 2,000 meter drill program by the end of 2021, another $0.5 million by the end of 2022, and another approximately $1.6 million by 2023 for a total $2.5 million. As of June 30, 2022, we've spent approximately $1.9 million since entering into the Agreement.
We completed a 2518-meter initial core drilling program (10 holes) in Q4 2021. In January 2022, we announced assay results from that drill program, including the potential of an oxidized gold system and a copper porphyry system. We completed a phase 2 drill program (22 diamond drill holes, 1,286 meters) in June 2022 designed to offset and delineate the oxidized gold interval encountered in the first drill program. Recently released assay results from that program point to a potentially economic shallow oxidized gold system, with highlights shown below. As of August 2022, further drilling is currently being planned.
Highlights from the phase 2 (2022) DD holes drilled in the Sico epithermal targets include:
Sico and Ari Saru Targets - 2021 Drilling
Six holes totaling 1,020 meters were drilled exploring a series of gold-bearing epithermal structures identified by surface mapping and sampling conducted in 2020 that returned grades up to 162 g/t Au at surface. The drill holes intersected multiple wide zones of near-surface oxide-gold mineralization, indicating the area has the potential to host a large bulk tonnage gold deposit. New permits have been submitted for trenching and additional drilling that the Company plans to complete during a 2022 field campaign.
Significant results drilled at ‘Sico’ and ‘Ari Saru’ epithermal gold targets:
Kachi Target
The Kachi target is located in the northern corner of the property where surface mapping and sampling has identified porphyry copper-style mineralization. The Company completed four holes totaling 1,498 meters exploring this target and the majority of the holes encountered wide zones of low-grade copper mineralization, suggesting that they intersected the periphery of a potentially large porphyry copper deposit.
Significant results drilled at ‘Kachi’ porphyry copper target:
Sarita Este Second Phase Drilling Program, initial results reported August 3, 2022
Sarita Este Drilling Results, reported January 19, 2022