- CAD$9.2 million (US$7 million) has been earmarked for Adventus-Salazar 2020 exploration program in Ecuador
- Exploration aims to discover new mineral deposits
- Drilling equipments have been mobilized to the project sites
Adventus Mining Corporation and Salazar Resources Limited have earmarked CAD$9.2 million (US$7 million) for their 2020 exploration program, which will leverage a MobileMT airborne magneto-telluric airborne survey – conducted last year – to look for copper, gold and molybdenum at their Curipamba, Pijili and Santiago projects in Ecuador.
Vice president Jason Dunning said 15 new targets were identified under the MobileMT survey, which the companies hope will yield new mineral discoveries.
A 10,000m drilling program has been designed to evaluate the new targets, with a 3000m drilling program to provide additional engineering data on the El Domo VMS deposit, which is located in the Curipamba project site.
“We are very excited about our 2020 exploration plans for the Curipamba project, as they complement ongoing development work focused on moving the El Domo deposit forward towards development,” Adventus vice president Jason Dunning said.
“The (new) exploration targets recently generated from data acquired by the state‐of‐the‐art MobileMT geophysical survey, not only verify some historical targets, but also highlight the strong discovery potential in new areas on the under explored property,” he said.
“A new discovery within Curipamba could be significantly additive to the already robust economics of the El Domo deposit.”
Seven concessions make up the Curipamba project which covers about 21,500 hectares of land.
Exploration for Pijili and Santiago will encompass a 5,000 – 10,000 drill program over both project sites, continued regional sampling and target evaluations for future exploration work, and the planning and construction of infrastructure at the Santiago site to support exploration efforts.
Salazar subsidiary Perforaciones Andesdrill S.A is contracted to conduct the Curipamba drilling program and have mobilized the drill rigs to the project site.
Both companies are also preparing drilling-related activities to provide engineering and environmental baseline information, which will include geotechnical assessment of the waste management areas, geomechanical characterization of the open pit, hydrogeological modelling of the project area, and condemnation drilling of key infrastructure sites.
The information will support both the commencement of the El Domo feasibility study this year a draft environmental impact assessment submission to Ecuadorian authorities in the first half of 2021.
Adventus Mining Corporation shares were up CAD$0.02 (2.22%) and has a market cap of CAD$92.5 million.
