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Andew Todd
Using space-age satellite imagery, Flagship Minerals has uncovered broad alterations at surface consistent with big new gold systems at its Pantanillo gold project in Chile’s renowned Maricunga belt. The footprints are prime areas for resource expansion, with two zones exceeding a massive 5km by 2km in scale.
The new targets were revealed after the company conducted an ASTER remote-sensing study that identified seven zones, including five additional discrete targets.
Management says the alterations cover well over 40 square kilometres of still mostly unexplored ground. The results paint a clear picture of real scale, with plenty of room to grow the project’s resource potential.
The halo patterns at Pantanillo look remarkably similar to those seen at some of the belt’s biggest names, including Norte Abierto, Lobo-Marte and La Coipa, underlining how well the project fits into this gold-rich neighbourhood.
‘Progress at Pantanillo on all fronts is strong and gaining momentum.’
Flagship Minerals managing director Paul Lock
Flagship says it is also putting the final touches on a fast-tracked mineral resource at its Pantanillo project. The last of its historic and current data sets are being compiled, with geological modelling hinting at a significantly bigger resource than the existing non-JORC foreign estimate of 1.05 million ounces of gold.
The company aims to release the new JORC-compliant resource estimate by the start of April, setting the stage for a follow-up drill program that will no doubt zero in on the latest massive alteration targets.
Large sections of the massive alteration zones at Pantanillo remain untested, offering clear avenues for resource expansion across the 110-square-kilometre holdings.
The project currently hosts a foreign estimate of 47.4 million tonnes at 0.69 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 1.05 million ounces, with nearly all of the material suited to heap-leach extraction.
Flagship says its metallurgical test work is progressing on a 690kg bulk sample, to refine recovery rates for development studies into a low-cost, open-pit heap leach operation at Pantanillo.
Historical tests have shown recoveries up to 89.6 per cent in bottle rolls and 82.7 per cent in column leaches for oxide ore, with the current program aiming to optimise those numbers.
The expected results could easily mirror those at Rio2’s Fenix Gold project, 50 kilometres north, which achieved 75 per cent recovery through dump leaching at a lower 0.48g/t gold, with projected all-in sustaining costs of just US$1237 (A$1772) per ounce.
Flagship Minerals managing director Paul Lock said: “The ASTER results indicate the potential scale of the Pantanillo project, with two substantial zones of alteration >5km in length and up to 2km wide, accompanied by five complementary 1-2km alteration zones. The results provide important targeting information and will be incorporated into the current dataset and used in future exploration initiatives.”
Pantanillo lies in the core of the Maricunga gold belt, home to over 65 million ounces of gold, including Newmont-Barrick’s 27-million-ounce Norte Abierto mine 40km southwest, Kinross’s 10.7-million-ounce Maricunga project 25km west and Hochschild’s 11-million-ounce Volcan deposit 10km northwest.
The gold deposit stretches more than 850m in length, ranges between 200m and 600m wide and remains open along strike and down-dip.
Flagship’s approach centres on building enough ounces to back an open-pit heap leach setup, eyeing some 100,000 ounces of gold production annually for at least a decade.
The company says it is gearing up for a rapid push into 2026, with feasibility studies and drilling planned to capitalise on its recently acquired Anglo American data trove and unlock Pantanillo’s full potential.
With gold prices hovering near record highs, Flagship remains confident in advancing Pantanillo as one of the lowest cost, most promising heap leach gold plays in Chile.
The big question now is just how many millions of ounces its long-awaited resource will ultimately deliver.
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