Promesa completes much anticipated first hole at Cerro Curunday gold project, Peru

South American gold explorer Promesa (ASX:PRA) has completed the first hole at the Cerro Curunday gold project in Peru to 358 metres, intersecting oxide material.

The first diamond drill hole, of a planned 6,000 metres first phase program, also pushed through to the sulphide zone.

Currently, the core is being logged, cut and sampled with samples being sent for assaying to a world class laboratory and testing facility in Lima.

The objective of the program at Cerro Curunday gold project in the La Libertad Department of Peru is to test a series of gold-bearing zones identified by channel and rock chip sampling along a 2.1 kilometres strike length of epithermal gold mineralisation.

The aim of the first drill hole was to target the oxide zone, which reached a depth of 191 metres, and the top of sulphide zone for potential epithermal mineralization.

The geology observed by the geological team on site, confirmed that the core obtained from the whole depth of 358.20 metres has identical features that were observed at the commencement of drilling.

All drilling is being undertaken using diamond drilling from surface to enable detailed logging and sampling.

The first drill hole has taken slightly longer than expected as a result of drilling continuing beyond the initial targeted depth of 200 metres and also "encountering highly fractured ground conditions."

The ground conditions resulted in additional water being required for the drilling. Steps to source additional water resources for the project and to reduce water consumption by optimising the mud weights are well advanced.

From a depth of 276.6 metres to the end of the hole, pyrrhotite (magnetic pyrite) is present along with pyrite, chalcopyrite and traces of molybdenite, into “A” type quartz veinlets.

This mineral assemblage represents an important feature for the telescoping of the epithermal into the porphyry environment. These preliminarily observations confirm the original modelling of the mineralization.

Meanwhile, field level exploration is underway to further understand the Cerro Curunday and Las Huacas project areas. This will include channel sampling and mapping of the eastern slope of Curunday and to progress field sampling and a mapping programme on the western slope of Curunday, towards the Las Huacas project area.

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/20054/promesa-completes-much-anticipated-first-hole-at-cerro-curunday-gold-project-peru-20054.html