Page 48 - pd285-Aug20-mag-web_Neat

ReGIonAL RoUndUP LAtIn AMeRIcA

Challenger ready for bigger

piece of Hualilan

Drilling in the Gap Zone between Cerro Sur and Cerro Norte, 300m along strike from Challenger’s
previous drilling, has returned 50m @ 1.4 g/t gold, 3.4 g/t silver, which remains open with assays
pending and included a higher-grade zone in oxides of 37m @ 1.8 g/t gold, 4.2 g/t silver from
53m. Challenger believes the new style of mineralisation – hosted in dacite porphyry – could
significantly increase the tonnage potential at Hualilan

uch is the potential emerging at Huali- A further 31 holes have been complet- concentrate. High grade covers a lot of
Slan in Argentina, Challenger Explora- ed of the planned 85-hole, 7,500m drill- sins,” he said.
tion Ltd is looking to take full control of the ing programme. The goal is to extend ex- With a supportive government in place,
gold project. isting mineralisation as part of a resource Challenger is eager to get going in Ar-
Having just earned the initial 25% inter- update later this year. gentina where Knauer reports there is a
est in the San Juan province hosted gold An historic non-JORC resource of fair amount of activity, particularly in the
play, Challenger managing director Kris 627,000oz @ 13.7 g/t gold has been San Juan province, under way.
Knauer told Paydirt the company hoped estimated at Hualilan, which has been Josemaria Resources, a company un-
to have a clearer line of sight on owning locked up in ownership disputes for the der the Lundin Group blanket, is moving
the project outright in the near future. past 15 years. towards the development of its name-
Minimum expenditure of $1 million for Knauer has been frustrated by the slow sake 6.5 blb copper, 6.5 moz gold and 29
25% of Hualilan has been satisfied, with turnaround in assays but expected to re- moz silver project and Knauer expects no
a further issue of shares to owners – ceive a flurry of results as restrictions be- slowing down of activity in the mineral-
Cerro Sur and Cerro Norte (subject to es- gan to ease in various parts of the world. rich region.
crow until July 2021) – committed to by “We will be drilling in Argentina for “We can still get drill rigs but there are
Challenger as it works towards the next the next six months and we are about to other groups over there drilling right now
milestone of a 75% interest. start magnetics, which will help us bet- as well. The well-trained drilling compa-
“Watch this space in the next six ter define the structures as well and then nies are busy and you’ll see in the next
months and hopefully you’ll see some- we’ll get a JORC resource out later in the 12 months exploration in Argentina will
thing pretty clever, which I hope is go- year,” Knauer said. increase. As much as the coronavirus
ing to get us to 100% sooner rather than “That resource will be very much a has slowed a few things down the new
later,” Knauer said. phase one resource. It certainly won’t President [Alberto Fernández] has pub-
Knauer is also in a hurry for the return capture everything. It will only capture a licly told the country that mining is much
of assays from the latest round of drilling small part of what will ultimately be there needed.”
at Hualilan. as we plan to effectively see how big this – Mark Andrews
An initial 18 holes drilled by Challeng- thing is. Once we build critical mass, we
er during the current campaign, which will look at production scenarios. At the time of print, Challenger was in a
kicked off in February, all intersected “If you are ever going to take something trading halt. It is understood the com-
mineralisation over a strike length of 2km, through to production, it is something like pany was organising a capital raising in
with new zones struck in several holes in- this which is high-grade with relatively the vicinity of $20 million predominantly
dicating potential for open pit material. simple metallurgy to sell bulk, high-value to progress work at Hualilan.

Page 48 aUgUST 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT