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REGIONAL ROUNDUP

E2 has feeling in its veins

by Dominic Piper
E2 Metals is well on its way to defining an entire epithermal
vein field on its Conserrat gold-silver project in Argentina

xploration for epithermal deposits can be a tricky Williams said the discovery of Andrea Sur, at the north-west
Ebusiness and E2 Metals Ltd managing director Todd end of the project, demonstrated the system continued well
Williams is not about to jump the gun on declaring what his beyond what the company had already interpreted.
company has in Argentina. “Looking at the core, it looks very similar to Malvina [2km
E2 has been working diligently on its Conserrat silver-gold east] so why can’t all of these vein systems be connected at
project in Santa Cruz for more than three years and while it depth?” he asked.
is yet to define a resource, Williams told GMJ the company Having made the discoveries via rapid scout drilling, E2 is
was comfortable with the progress it had made. now planning a 6,000m diamond and RC programme to
“Rather than getting out a resource quickly, we much infill Malvina and follow-up on Andrea Sur and other recent
prefer to focus on getting a clear line-of-sight on 1 moz discoveries.
gold equivalent,” he said. “It can be tricky with epithermal “It is now about working our way through in a systematic
deposits and we don’t want to come out with a substandard manner and piecing something together,” Williams said.
resource. Once the discoveries dry up, we can then switch “We have only just started looking under cover, previously it
focus to resources and scoping studies. But we could blow had been about finding little clues on the edge of the cover,
ourselves up if we put out a substandard resource.” Malvina was the first discovery under cover so it gives us
E2’s balance of ambitious target and careful approach confidence we may find more on the other 80% of the project
appears appropriate to the nature of the mineralisation that we haven’t tested.
at Conserrat. On the same trend as the nearby Cerro “The plan is to continue our focus on regional exploration
Vanguardia mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti Ltd (8.9 moz with a view to building Conserrat to the point of a critical
gold, 13 moz silver), Conserrat has the high-grade hallmarks mass of ounces for a standalone project. That will only come
of a classic epithermal vein field. The challenge – and from further discoveries similar to Mia and Malvina and we
opportunity for E2 – is that most of the mineralised veins are now understand which structures could hold similar targets.”
under cover.
That programme has the backing of high-profile precious
“We have 5-20m of cover over most of the project but that metals investor Eric Sprott, who cornerstoned E2’s recent
was why we were excited about it in the first place, it could $8.5 million placement. Sprott was among a group of North
be anything,” Williams explained. “We are trying to get a American investors to join the register in the capital raising.
clear understanding of where the mineralised corridors are
“The capital raising was opportunistic in that it allowed us
before we consider resource drilling. That requires you to
to strengthen the balance sheet, improve the register and
apply different methods, 50 line-km geophysical lines, 400m
get some North American investors into the stock,” Williams
spaced drilling instead of 50m spacing.”
said.
E2 has already made several high-grade discoveries at
“We always recognised that as a company exploring in
Conserrat, including Malvina (best hit 14m @ 45 g/t gold
South America we would need North American eyes on the
equivalent), Mia (18m @ 51 g/t gold equivalent) and Andrea
stock if we wanted to be relevant and there is no better way
Sur (16m @ 15 g/t gold equivalent).
to do that than going straight to the top. Eric Sprott is well
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