PUR expands drill program for gold project in Argentina

Our Investment Pursuit Minerals (ASX: PUR) just expanded its maiden drill program at its gold-silver project in Argentina.

PUR was initially planning a 6-hole program.

Instead, yesterday PUR announced it will drill 8 holes into the project.

Which will test the targets that PUR says resemble $163BN capped Newmont's 8 million ounce Cerro Negro gold mine.

(that project sits ~100km to the south of PUR)

(source)

For context - Cerro Negro was found by drilling beneath a “silica cap” - we are not geo’s so we won’t claim to know what that is.

But we can sort of see what PUR’s theory is from the image below.

(basically just drilling below that silica cap where PUR thinks that the gold-silver is):

Here are the targets PUR will be testing with the upcoming program:

(source)(source)

At Sascha, PUR has 4 holes planned to drill down to ~350m (below the old holes that hit gold-silver at ~100m-200m depths).

At Marcelina,4 holes are also planned and the IP survey has been folded into an updated 3D model, defining a discrete high-probability gold target at depth under the silica cap.

Historical drilling there already hit precious metals at depth, including 0.9m at 1.35g/t gold and 363g/t silver from ~252m.

We covered the most recent update on this project here where PUR was progressing the geological model ahead of the drilling here.

Drilling preparations are progressing, with the program to start once the rig is mobilised and site access is arranged.

PUR is also drilling its lithium project too

While we wait for the for the gold-silver drilling to get underway.

PUR is currently drilling its lithium project (also in Argentina).

PUR's project already has a 1.26Mt Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) JORC resource...

AND a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) showing a US$364M Net Present Value (NPV) for a planned 5,000tpa lithium operation.

Here PUR is currently midway through a 4th hole - drilling around the edges of the Rio Grande salt lake - where the lithium brine reservoirs sit:

(source)(source)(source)

With its first batch of assays PUR already hit lithium grades up to 809mg/L lithium at ~400m depth.

Samples from the latest hole are also at the lab, so we could get an update on that soon:

(source)

We think this set of results could be material to PUR because it could validate its theory that the brine reservoirs extend out below the edges of the sale lake (where PUR’s biggest blocks sits).

IF the theory holds, we could see PUR upgrade its resource materially from where it is today.

(of course no guarantees - exploration is extremely risky and the theory may not hold when assays are released)

(source)

What’s next for PUR?

🔄 Lithium asset (Drilling started early July)

~7 weeks ago PUR received some early assays, which included a sample of 809mg/L lithium across ~5m at ~400m depth. (source)

~6 weeks ago PUR confirmed drilling has started at hole number 4, in between the recently completed hole and the existing resource:

(source)(source)(source)

🔲 Drilling at PUR’s gold-silver project in Argentina

PUR just recently completed mapping work and an IP survey to define drill targets for the project.

PUR now expects to be drilling "in the near term". (source)

Drilling here is expected after rig mobilisation and site access is sorted (source)

See why we like that project from the acquisition in a Deep Dive here: PUR: Acquires Gold Project in Argentina - Gold price smashing records