Vancouver, Canada, April 19th, 2023 – Heliostar Metals Limited (TSX.V: HSTR, OTCQX: HSTXF, FRA: RGG1) (“Heliostar” or the “Company”) is pleased to report that drilling has commenced at the Ana Paula Deposit in Mexico. This follows the re-scoping plans announced on April 3, 2023.
Heliostar CEO, Charles Funk, commented “Heliostar continues to move rapidly with our re-scope of the Ana Paula deposit. By focussing on the High Grade Panel at the core of Ana Paula, we believe we can considerably improve the project economics by changing from an open pit mine plan to an underground gold mine plan. The current drill program is expected to increase both the size and grade of the Ana Paula reserve and resource. Further, the information gathered will also be used to guide mine and mill designs. First results are expected by the end of May. These are key first steps in delivering on the 2023 catalysts for Heliostar’s shareholders.”
2023 Drill Program for Re-Scoping Ana Paula
Heliostar Metals’ 2023 Ana Paula drill program endeavors to achieve three goals:
· Increase the size and grade of the resource and reserve.
· Provide the geotechnical information required to complete underground mine planning.
· Provide metallurgical samples testwork designed to improve gold recovery and simplify the mill flow sheet.
The program will consist of 3,000 - 3,600 metres (m) of drilling in 16 - 24 drill holes. Drilling will utilize large diameter, PQ-sized, core to provide adequate sample mass for metallurgical testing. Drill holes will target the High Grade Panel at the center of the Ana Paula deposit, with a combination of growth and infill targets to be tested.
As noted in the April 3, 2023 press release, the High Grade Panel contains wide, historic intercepts of superior grade, including:
· 231 m grading 7.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold
· 120 m grading 11.2 g/t gold
· 81.1 m grading 14.5 g/t gold
· 57.6 m grading 18.6 g/t gold
· 63.4 m grading 15.3 g/t gold
Based on the current geological model, the company believes there is potential to add up to an additional 100m to the current 250 metre strike length of the High Grade Panel. Volume increase is possible both up and down plunge of the current mineralized panel (Figure 1). Furthermore, the High Grade Panel is inadequately defined by the historic drill program. The panel contains areas of closer spaced drilling less than 25m apart and other gaps with greater than 40m spacing. In these greater than 40m gaps, despite consistent geology and mineralization in the nearby holes, the resource model has conservatively reduced the grade with increasing distance from data points (Figure 1). The company is planning to infill these gaps with the expectation that similar results to surrounding holes can result in materially improved local grades. These in turn may lead to additional ounces and increased resource and reserve grades.
The second aspect of the program is geotechnical and rock mechanics data. This data will support the design of an underground mine plan. To support a robust mine development plan, engineers require detailed information to estimate the size and shapes of the underground workings.
Metallurgical testing will be the third aspect of the program. The Company chose to use large diameter core in order to provide sufficient mass of sample for multiple types of metallurgical testing. The limited amount of historic metallurgical studies made the current testing program a priority. Much of the historical metallurgy focused on the lower grade granodiorite-hosted mineralization. However, whilst this mineralization makes up a much larger volume of rock, it is less relevant to the proposed underground mining scenario.
Our vision for Ana Paula is to unlock significant value that was overlooked historically. The re-scoping program is expected to be catalyst-rich for shareholders, starting with results from the ongoing drill program. The first assays from the High Grade Panel are expected to be reported by the end of May 2023. The re-scoping study aims to bring forward ounces in the mine plan and improve the base case metallurgy. Both of those will have material impacts on Ana Paula’s net present value. The ongoing re-scope should provide the key studies necessary to advance to a feasibility study and ultimately to development.
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https://www.heliostarmetals.com/news-articles/heliostar-commences-drilling-of-the-high-grade-gold-panel-at-the-ana-paula-deposit-mexico |
