Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX:STM) has made another major discovery in Ecuador, at Bramaderos Project in the country’s south, with the first exploratory hole at the new Alba target striking 111 metres at 2.3 g/t gold, including 7.2 metres at 26.88 g/t as well as 1.2 metres at 87.7 g/t.
Alba represents the second major discovery in Ecuador and adds to the recent El Palmar gold-copper discovery in the country’s north, where drilling is ongoing, and assays are expected imminently.
There was a strong response to the discovery from investors with shares up as much as 52.17% to A$0.105, representing a new 7-year high while more than 252 million shares changed hands with a value of almost A$24 million.
Assay results from initial drill hole BMDD012 at Alba include:
The drill hole targeted a magnetic anomaly on the south-eastern flank of Bramaderos Hill, in a target area now known as Alba, which is northwest of, and adjacent to, the Brama target where drilling is ongoing.
“Clearly an exceptional result”
Sunstone managing director Malcolm Norris said the Alba intersection was extremely exciting.
“This has long been an area where we were keen to advance our exploration program and these results justify our systematic approach to testing multiple targets,” Norris said.
“The intersection at Alba is clearly an exceptional result which we will follow up immediately. The broader Alba target opens up a number of areas for drill testing.”
Sunstone Metals says it is highly encouraging that the mineralisation was intersected at a relatively shallow depth of about 65 metres from surface and remains open both up and down dip and along strike.
The high gold zone is currently interpreted as a ‘later’ gold-rich event over a broad and deeper gold-copper porphyry mineralised system. The high-grade core to this zone contains visible gold.
There has been no significant historical drilling at Alba. Hole CURI-11 was drilled (in 2002 by Ecuanor SA) from the south and intersected a point 250 metres below the BMDD012 gold intersection but has not tested the interpreted Alba target horizon.
Hole BMDD013, designed to test the northern extent of the Brama target (results pending), was drilled away to the northeast from the same pad as BMDD012 and BMDD006 was drilled away from the Alba target towards the south-east, again to test the Brama target.
Follow-up drilling
The drill rig on site at Bramaderos is completing a hole at Brama and will be moved to Alba next week.
Follow-up drilling will initially involve testing the depth extent of the intersection in BMDD012 and will then test the lateral extent. At this stage, it is thought that the gold system trends NE-SW.
About Sunstone
Sunstone has an advanced portfolio of exploration and development projects in Ecuador and Scandinavia. The portfolio comprises:
- The Bramaderos Gold-Copper Project where Sunstone owns an 87.5% interest with TSXV-listed Cornerstone Capital Resources holding 12.5%.The Bramaderos project is located in Loja province, southern Ecuador, and is highly prospective for the discovery of large porphyry gold-copper systems, and high-grade epithermal gold systems. Historical exploration results from drilling at Bramaderos together with recent exploration by Sunstone and joint venture partner Cornerstone Capital indicate multiple fertile mineralised systems with significant discovery potential;
- The El Palmar Copper-Gold Project where the highly prospective 800 hectares porphyry project in northern Ecuador will be acquired through a Staged Acquisition Agreement, which will ultimately deliver 100% ownership to Sunstone;
- Sunstone has a large equity interest in Stockholm listed Copperstone Resources following the sale of the Viscaria Copper project to Copperstone in 2019; and
- The Finland Lithium Project includes the Kietyonmaki lithium prospect. Drilling by Sunstone has delivered 22 metres at 1.4% Li2O in a spodumene-bearing pegmatite. The project is a JV with Nortec Minerals. As announced on 5 May 2021, a Letter of Intent has been signed to sell the Finland Lithium Project.
