Metminco Limited (ASX: MNC), soon to be renamed Los Cerros Limited, is pleased to advise that it has received the final tranche of assays for the 2019 Chuscal drilling program which consisted of four diamond holes, and represents the first drilling to occur at the Chuscal Prospect.

Chuscal is a gold porphyry and vein target within the Quinchia Project which also hosts the Tesorito Prospect and the established Ore Reserve at Miraflores, all within a 2km radius.

The final hole (CHDDH004) of the 4 hole Chuscal program was designed to complete the first pass testing along the core of the 900m strike of the Chuscal gold in soil anomaly and to demonstrate continuity of regional gold bearing structures by testing the 500m interval between holes CHDDH002 and CHDDH003, both of which encountered porphyry associated gold and vein hosted gold. Drill hole CHDDH004 intercepted regions of vein gold at depths predicted in the regional structural model, adding weight to the validity of the model for the distribution of epithermal vein related gold and silver. The best result was encountered near surface and correlated to the Guayacanes corridor which hosts a series of horsetail faults containing old artisanal workings.

8m @ 1.65g/t Au from 8m below surface including 2m @ 3.86g/t Au from 8m

CHDDH004 also encountered extensive lower grade porphyry associated gold throughout, with assays frequently reporting grades of around 0.3g/t gold and occasionally higher.

Metminco's Managing Director, Jason Stirbinskis commented; 'In the context of a maiden drilling program into a large porphyry/epithermal system, the results from CHDDH004 in conjunction with results from the other three holes (CHDDH001 350m @ 0.57g/t Au plus 8m @ 2.82g/t Au and 29.96g/t Ag, CHDDH002 320m @ 0.43g/t Au plus 0.5m @ 17.1g/t Au, CHDDH003 0.4m @ 31.8g/t Au)2 are significant and pleasing.'

NEXT STEPS

Chuscal has been of great interest to its various previous owners for several decades including recently when held by AngloGold Ashanti. The prospect sits within a porphyry cluster (dominantly controlled by Metminco) within a very prospective region of the mid-Cauca porphyry belt and is defined by a significant surface gold geochemical anomaly. The possibility of a material discovery is considered high.

Metminco was the first company to secure permissions to drill Chuscal and the recently completed maiden drilling program has dramatically increased the understanding of the target and, as new data is assimilated into regional models, the structural story will continue to evolve over coming months

Material developments include: Porphyry-associated gold is far more widespread than previously assumed, as evidenced by the moderate to very long drill core intercepts of lower grade gold over a strike of 500m

Overprinting by Intermediate Sulphidation System (ISS) epithermal veins is far more extensive than previously modelled; is associated with a regional fault structure (horsetail) of 500m strike which remains open to the NW and SE and at depth and occurred late in the geological sequence as veins can been seen to cut most rock units including breccias

The Guyacanes Diorite is not the porphyry source (as previously assumed), but rather just one of many units containing porphyry associated mineralisation, suggesting a much larger regional system with the deeper causative intrusive(s) (porphyry) occurring relatively later.

Mr Stirbinskis summarised; 'Now that we have all the assay data, we will further test our hypotheses by conducting more detailed analysis of the geochemistry, including pathfinder ratios, to vector in on where all this porphyry associated gold might be coming from. We can also return to the oriented drill core armed with the geochemistry and extract critical information about vein sets, pulses and structures that will hopefully tell us what to look for to hit the high grade veins that have been the driver of artisanal miners for generations. This is a big, complex system!'

The Company's Geologists, supported by very experienced consultants, Dr Steve Garwin and Dr Roric Smith are currently consolidating the extensive regional data and new information to formulate the 2020 exploration plan and immediate next steps.

Preliminary observations that will contribute to future drill hole targeting is the developing argument that Chuscal has been subject to 6 episodes/stages of mineralisation with significant gold mineralisation associated with two stages. A period associated with the formation of porphyry type textures and mineral suite called Stage 2 appears to correlate with high background gold grades. Stage 6, the last of the episodes, correlates with the higher-grade gold associated with epithermal veins of carbonates and base metals (CBM).

Mr Stirbinskis added 'We are interested in better understanding the controls to high grade gold mined by artisinals and CBM veining which is the primary vein style carrying high grade gold at Continental Gold's Buritica project located to our north and at other projects within the Mid-Cauca belt. Developing an understanding of stages associated with gold mineralisation and development of a 3-D geological model of Chuscal will contribute to better future targeting.

It is also our understanding that geochemical profiling, of which the above is an example, has not been applied to Miraflores or Tesorito by previous explorers and developing a better understanding of gold distribution within these deposits will be part of the early 2020 program'.

Another line of investigation gaining traction is the application of numerous pathfinder and ratio signatures to vector in on the causative porphyry or porphyries that are the primary source of mineralisation at Chuscal. The following early stage observations are developing an argument for two target zones in the immediate vicinity.

Molybdenum (Mo) concentration tends to increase towards the mineralised core of a porphyry system. It has been noted across the recent drillholes that Mo values increase towards two different environments in the Guyacanes area, south of the top of CHDDH002 and for the Corporacion area, south of the bottom of CHDDH003. Likewise, higher ratios of Mo/Mn (manganese) and yttrium/thorium (Y/Th) occur closer to porphyries/intrusives and vector to a region south of the top of CHDDH002.

Tellurium (Te) is also associated with substantial porphyry centres and at Chuscal has a similar vector orientation to the above while the relative abundance of background copper values compared to gold increasing downhole suggests a porphyry is possible below the sites of the 2019 drill program.

Mr Stirbinskis added 'Interestingly, we have started conducting similar assessments at the regional scale and have noted a number of areas and potential extensions at Tesorito, Santa Sofia and Miraflores that warrant further investigation'

The Company is formulating the follow-up drill program and will provide updates as insights and plans emerge.

Contact:

Jason Stirbinskis

Email: jstirbinskis@metminco.com.au

(C) 2020 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire