Compelling Targets Being Tested At Platosa
Excellon Resources Inc. (TSX:EXN) has four Diamond Drill (DD) rigs undertaking an a major exploration campaign at the Platosa Project in Durango, Mexico.
The ongoing and planned drilling programmes include:
- Jaboncillo – drilling recommencing 11 km north of Platosa Mine on 4×4 kilometre target, following up on gossanous horizon intersected in 2019
- PDN – drilling ongoing two km north of Platosa Mine on 800m long geophysical target associated with Rincón del Caído skarn discovery made in 2012
- Platosa Underground – drilling ongoing with two rigs to support resource definition and expansion
- Platosa Extension – 10-20 target south-east of Platosa Mine being explored for new massive sulphide mantos
“Exploration at Platosa continues to deliver compelling targets at a mine and regional level,” Ben Pullinger, SVP Geology and Corporate Development, said.
“We are currently drilling regional discovery targets, with the Jaboncillo alteration zone representing a potentially larger-scale Platosa-style deposit and the PDN geophysical anomaly potentially representing a skarn-body associated with our Rincón del Caído discovery in 2012.
“Additionally, we continue to define the new 10-20 target, just south of the Mine, which has the potential to significantly increase the mineralized footprint at Platosa.”
Drilling is currently ongoing at Jaboncillo where the Ccmpany intersected gossans in 12 of 20 drill holes in 2019. Petrographic analysis conducted on samples from these gossans subsequently confirmed the presence of relict base metal sulphides as well as silver species within the oxidised intervals. These gossans were intersected over a strike length of 1.2 km and represent the emplacement of a large hydrothermal system in this area.
This programme is targeting the source of these gossans and the possible discovery of massive sulphides at this target.
Drilling at PDN commenced in late Q4 2020 to test a large, 800 x 60m target derived from multiple sets of geophysical data, surface mapping and sampling. PDN represents a deeper skarn target believed to be related to the Rincón del Caído skarn discovery made in 2012, where the company intersected a number of mineralised intersections, including 55.5m grading 278 g/t AgEq (132 g/t Ag, 3.13% Pb, 1.74% Zn and 0.075 g/t Au) and 7.25m grading 1,145 g/t AgEq (13.1 g/t Au, 21.1 g/t Ag, 0.74% Pb and 3.57% Zn).
Initial drilling at PDN has intersected anomalous silver associated with target mineralisation in EX20PDN002 intersecting 218 g/t Ag over 0.7 metres.
Underground drilling at the Platosa Mine continues to define mineralisation ahead of mine development and add mineralised inventory in areas not adequately tested by surface drilling. The ongoing programme follows up on previous drilling of the Pierna and NE-1 mantos and depth extensions of the 623 and NE-1S mantos.
Platosa Extension
In late 2020, the company conducted drilling on the 10-20 target from surface, 250m south of the high-grade 623 Manto along a northwest trending structure.
Exploration drilling on this structure in 2018 and 2019 encountered high-grade results expanding the NE-1 South Manto, which remains open.
Drilling followed up on sulphide veinlets and breccias encountered in 2018 drilling, which returned 2.6% lead and are believed to be related to proximal massive sulphide mineralization.
Recent drilling encountered 2.76m of 69 g/t AgEq, including 1.32m of 129 g/t AgEq in EX20LP1167.
Most significantly, the 10-20 target is structurally related to results encountered in recent underground drilling in the Gap Zone, a zone of vertical mineralisation inadequately tested with vertical holes drilled from surface, which provides a significant opportunity to add mineralisation over approximately 300m of strike with a vertical extent of 30-40m. The company believes this zone has the potential to significantly increase the current, 600×800-metre mineralised footprint of the Platosa Mine
