EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT

SolGold onto new porphyry deposit

SOLGOLD might have got the name spot on for the Porvenir project in southern Ecuador – it means future in Spanish.

Staff reporter
SolGold's exploration teams have had a busy year

SolGold's exploration teams have had a busy year

The explorer, which has had so much success with the Alpala deposit, said early work at Porvenir's Target 15 showed a kilometre-wide "broad zone of north east trending porphyry mineralisation".

SolGold said rock-saw sampling on outcrops in the area had seen intersections of 62.4m at 0.71% copper and 0.71 grams per tonne gold and 29.5m at 1.01% copper and 0.89gpt gold.

Rock chip sample highlights were 2.35% copper and 3.59gpt gold. 

CEO Nick Mather used the announcement to make clear his intention to go it alone with his portfolio.

"The high grades and strong gold endowment at Alpala and Porvenir provides SolGold with a unique opportunity to develop this company without resorting to dilutive and erosive joint ventures," he said.

"We are confident that Alpala and now Porvenir Target 15 are the first projects in a long, large and rich string of them."

Mather said in November Alpala was just the start.

"We're developing a province. It's 750km long, it's got four belts in it, it's an underexplored section of the world's richest copper belt province, the Andean copper belt," he said.

"When we drilled into Alpala in 2012, we asked ourselves the question, 'how likely is it the first one is the only one or the best one'. The answer to that is it's not likely at all."

SolGold shares last traded at 38.75p in London, valuing the company at more than £683 million.

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