Gorbea Belt
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Property Type
HSE Gold Project
Size
32,000 ha
Status
Optioned to Newcrest International Pty Ltd.
Exploration Stage
Drilling
Location
- Northern Chile
- Mio-Pliocene age mineral belt north of Salares Norte
- Situated approximately 150 km north of the Maricunga Belt
In 2012, Mirasol staked a large land package containing nine projects in the newly discovered Gorbea Belt, securing an area with broad prospective alteration systems identified by its generative team. Detailed ground follow-up of these targets identified large outcropping gold systems at the Atlas and Titan projects.
After some initial work completed by Mirasol, the Gorbea package was optioned to Yamana Gold from 2015 to 2018. During this period, Yamana spent more than C$10 M on exploration expenditures and drilled more than 11,000 m on the project. In early 2019, Mirasol entered into a new agreement with Newcrest Mining to further advance exploration on this property package. Since the beginning of this exploration partnership, Newcrest has completed 7,500m of drilling and reported exploration expenditures of approximately US$10.5 million on the property (to December 31, 2021), representing a significant investment on the project.
Option and Farm-in Agreement
On January 28, 2019, the Company announced that it signed a definitive Letter Agreement for an Option and Farm-in Agreement with a subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited (Newcrest) for the Gorbea gold project in Chile. Newcrest has the right to acquire, in multiple stages, up to 75% of the Gorbea project by completing a series of exploration and development milestones and making staged option payments to Mirasol.
Newcrest has completed its initial commitment to spend US$4 million and complete 3,000 m of drilling over an initial 18-month period. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, activity remains suspended until at least August 2021 when COVID-19 conditions and local regulations will be reviewed by the parties. Newcrest has implemented and maintained measures to reduce and mitigate the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic to its project workforce and key stakeholders and as a consequence of these developments, Mirasol and Newcrest have agreed to amend the Gorbea Option and Farm-in Agreement allowing Newcrest to exercise its option to enter the farm-in phase of the Agreement by making a US$500,000 payment to Mirasol.
In order to complete the first farm-in phase and vest an initial 51% in the Gorbea project, Newcrest is now required to complete at least US$15 million in exploration expenditures over 4.5 years and drill a minimum of 8,000m on the Gorbea Project. The first 2,000m of drilling was completed before the end of 2021 and the additional 6,000m must be completed before the end of 2022.
Upon Newcrest earning 75% of the project, Mirasol can elect to fund its share and retain a 25% project equity position, or exercise a one-time equity conversion option to convert up to 10% of its equity into an NSR royalty at a rate of 2.5% equity per 0.5% NSR royalty (max 2% NSR royalty).
The Gorbea belt comprises of nine 100%-owned claim blocks totalling 32,000 ha and includes the Atlas and Titan prospects. The Atlas project is centred on a +20 km2 HSE gold alteration system hosting multiple gold and silver targets and contains many of the key geological, mineralization features and area extent to other economic systems in the area, such as Salares Norte (Gold Fields), Alturas (Barrick Gold) and La Coipa (Kinross Gold), supporting its potential to host large-scale gold mineralization.
The latest round of drilling on the Atlas project, brings the total drilling to nearly 18,000m in 40 holes by both Newcrest and Mirasol’s previous partner, and demonstrates widespread mineralization within the central breccia complex.
Newcrest Exploration:
During the first half of 2019, Newcrest, as the operator of the Gorbea exploration program, completed two diamond drill holes for 903 m, 50 km of CSAMT geophysics over the Atlas target as well as reconnaissance mapping and sampling over several other target areas in the Gorbea property package. Drilling was initially targeting a coincident geophysical, geochemical and alteration anomaly at depth below a barren steam-heated leach cap, following up on previous drilling results.
During the 2019/2020 field season, Newcrest completed 9 additional drill holes at the Atlas target, for a total of 4,523 m of diamond drilling this season. Best Results from the season included:
- ATL-DDH-001A: 0.52 g/t Au and 6.81 g/t Ag over 164m (from 372m), including:
- 1.07 g/t Au and 7.18 g/t Ag over 14m (from 372m), and
- 1.31 g/t Au and 7.82 g/t Ag over 16.5m (from 402.5m)
- ATL-DDH-010: 0.54 g/t Au and 2.65 g/t Ag over 129m (from 363m), including:
- 1.4 g/t Au and 2.08 g/t Ag over 17m (from 364m), also including:
- 2.09 g/t Au and 3.00 g/t Ag over 10m (from 371m)
- 1.84 g/t Au and 3.57 g/t Ag over 3m (from 425m)
- 1.4 g/t Au and 2.08 g/t Ag over 17m (from 364m), also including:
In late 2021, NCM completed five reverse circulation drill holes for 2,072m, with two holes at the Atlas prospect and three holes at the El Dorado prospect and no meaningful mineralization was encountered in these holes.
At Atlas, hole ATLT0011A targeted the extension to the southeast of a silicified polymictic breccia body outcropping on surface (Apollo Breccia) coinciding with a high-resistivity feature. Although vuggy silica texture, quartz alunite alteration and pathfinder elements were intersected, the lack of Au values indicates a peripheral position to the mineralized centre. Hole ATLT0012 was drilled to test for potential continuation to the north in the Atlas Central zone. The results limit the potential of the mineralized body in a northerly direction, but some potential remains to both the east and west to extend the mineralization and explore for higher-grade mineralization. One potential target lies to east-southeast where pathfinder elements, alunite composition and Au values combine with a high-resistivity anomaly.
At El Dorado, the drill holes targeted a combination of positive features, including a high-resistive feature, a polymictic breccia body with vuggy silica fragment and a steam-heat zone, all associated with elevated pathfinder elements. No further work is planned at El Dorado in the short term.
NCM has informed the Company that it is now focused on reviewing other untested prospects at Gorbea (Ventura, Orion, Danay and Aldebaran) with further surface mapping, geochemistry and possible geophysical surveys to identify potential drill targets.
Yamana Exploration:
During the three years of exploration at Gorbea, Yamana focused its drilling activity exclusively on the Atlas and Titan projects. The best drilling results on the Atlas project were received in 2017 from holes 15 and 16:
- CLATDH0015: 1.07 g/t Au and 1.78 g/t Ag over 114.1m (from 347m), including:
- 36 m at 2.49 g/t Au and 3.08 g/t Ag
- CLATDH0016: 0.32 g/t Au and 0.81 g/t Ag over 45.8m
To learn more about the project and recent exploration results see all current and historical news releases.
- ATL-DDH-001A: 0.52 g/t Au and 6.81 g/t Ag over 164m (from 372m), including:
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