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The El Camino property is an IOCG (iron-oxide-copper-gold) prospect located 380 km northwest of the City of Salta, Salta Province, northwest Argentina. 100% owned by Aldebaran. Access from the City of Salta is by good paved roads for the first 150 km and by all-weather dirt roads for the remaining part of the road to La Casualidad Mine. Access to the property from the mine is by a 2 km long rough dirt track. The total travelling time from Salta is estimated at 8 hours.
The mineralization at El Camino is represented by hematite ± fluorite ± quartz and copper oxides, mainly in hematite-rich breccias, stockworks and sheeted veinlets hosted in felsic volcanic rocks of Permian-Triassic age. The alteration forms a crudely triangular shape zone with an asymmetrical pattern, in excess of 2,000 m long, 1,000 m wide and pinching to the south. Alteration assemblages are non-common but typical of the IOGC systems, and include k-feldspathization, intense hematite, chlorite-hematite, sericite/kaolin-silica-hematite, and chlorite-k-feldspar with silica-hematite veinlets and k-feldspar biotite/chlorite Hematite alteration. In the core of the altered zone, matrix-supported, clast-supported and crackle breccias are abundant. Alteration is variable and includes hematite-rich, chlorite-rich, chlorite/biotite-k-feldspar-alunite-magnetite and CuOx-hematite as replacements within these breccias.
Exploration potential is open in all directions under colluvium cover, with large areas potentially mineralized still untested to date within the property.
1996: The El Camino prospect was discovered in 1996 by Mansfield Minerals Inc.
2000-2001: Teck performed an exploration program under a joint venture agreement with Mansfield, which included sampling and a small diamond drilling campaign totalling 719 m. Highlights from this four drill hole program can be seen in Table 1. Best results in Teck's trench channel sampling include:
-TEC-E: | 42 m @ 1.33 g/t Au; 0.52 % Cu; 1.11 % Pb; 1.27 % Zn and 41.6 g/t Ag includes 26 m @ 2.30 g/t Au; 0.66 % Cu; 1.60 % Pb; 1.40 % Zn and 60.4 g/t Ag |
-TEC-02: | 24 m @ 1.00 g/t Au; 0.16 % Cu; 0.13 % Pb; 0.55 % Zn and 15.52 g/t Ag includes 6 m @ 1.65 g/t Au; 0.17 % Cu; 1.33 % Pb; 1.70 % Zn and 28.9 g/t Ag |
Teck returned the property to Mansfield in 2001.
2002-2007: Mansfield completed several field exploration programs in the area including mapping, systematic soil sampling, and collection of prospective grab samples, Induced Polarization and Ground Magnetometry surveys, trenching and drilling.
2008: The El Camino property was transferred to Pachamama as part of a restructuring of Mansfield.
2012-2016: In 2012 Regulus received this project through the amalgamation with Pachamama and very limited work was done in following years.
2017: Regulus geologists completed a reconnaissance campaign and took six rock chip samples in areas of interest confirming gold and copper mineralization (Figure 2).
2018: The El Camino project, together with Rio Grande, Aguas Calientes and other early stage Argentina projects, was spun out into Aldebaran.
Table 1 : Highlights from Teck Corporation 4 diamond drill hole campaign, totalling 719 m.
Drill Hole | From (m) |
To (m) | Length (m) |
Ag (ppm) |
Cu (%) | Zn (%) | Pb (%) | Area |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FB-001 | 24.08 | 30.18 | 6.10 | 10.50 | 0.15 | 0.23 | * | Manifest Zone |
FB-002 | 3.05 | 23.00 | 19.95 | 8.34 | * | 0.52 | 0.15 | Discovery Zone |
Including | 5.00 | 11.28 | 6.28 | 17.90 | * | 0.81 | 0.39 | Discovery Zone |
FB-003 | 22.56 | 37.40 | 14.84 | 15.00 | 0.10 | 0.20 | 0.20 | Discovery Breccia Zone |
Including | 22.56 | 24.24 | 1.68 | 69.00 | 0.37 | 0.35 | 0.40 | Discovery Breccia Zone |
* Denotes <0.10% |