Galantas Gold Corporation has completed 5,060 metres of its planned 5,000-metre drill program at the Indiana gold-copper project near Copiapó, Chile, prompting an expansion of the campaign to 12,500 metres, to be funded from existing cash reserves.

The drilling program is designed to test for strike and down-dip extensions at the Bondadosa and Flor de Espino veins, investigate new unexposed structures, target high-grade structural intersections, and provide data for underground mine design. To date, the company has completed 12 exploration holes totaling 4,852 metres and one 208-metre infill hole at the Flor de Espino vein, with 12 of the 13 holes intersecting the targeted Bondadosa or Flor de Espino veins near predicted depths.

Work at the project has also identified 12 new visually mineralized structures containing pyrite and chalcopyrite. In addition, drilling has encountered new styles of mineralization, including disseminated sulphides in intrusive and volcanic rocks, disseminated molybdenite within intrusive monzodiorite, and primary chalcocite and bornite associated with intense calcsilicate alteration.

Assay results remain largely pending due to laboratory backlogs and power outages caused by heavy rains in Chile's Coquimbo region. Galantas Gold is dispatching samples to alternative certified laboratories in Chile and expects to report results as they become available.

Surface exploration across the broader 8 km by 10 km land package within the iron oxide-copper-gold belt has also identified new targets, including the La Maravilla target along the newly discovered North-South trending Zeus structure.

“We are very encouraged by these observations, which support our belief that Indiana is a fertile area for discovery of additional gold-copper mineralization and expansion of the current mineral resource. For the first time at Indiana, disseminated sulphide mineralization, including molybdenite, has been recognized in drill core. The significance of this disseminated mineralization is being assessed, as is the significance of the hypogene (primary) chalcocite and bornite associated with intense alteration. Surface exploration has identified new targets in a large land package of approximately 8 km by 10 km within a major IOCG belt which we expect will merit drill testing.”

— Mario Stifano, Chief Executive Officer

Read the full announcement: Galantas Gold Expands Indiana Drill Program to 12,500 Metres