Titan sampling extends Ecuador gold-silver footprint

A successful Titan Minerals sampling campaign has extended the footprint of its Dynasty project in Ecuador, with rock chips confirming high-grade gold and silver outside of the operation’s existing resource.

One sample taken 1.7km south of the company’s Papayal prospect delivered impressive assays of 8.71 grams per tonne gold, 197g/t silver, 3.06 per cent copper, 20 per cent lead and 12.5 per cent zinc. Peak results from rock chips collected 230m east of its Trapichillo target returned 8.73g/t gold and 6.4g/t silver.

Papayal’s current mineral resource sits at 900,000 tonnes at 4.54g/t gold and 50.85g/t silver for a contained figure of 130,000 gold ounces and 1.43 million ounces of silver. The Trapichillo target hosts 2.9 million tonnes at a solid 3.8g/t gold and 39.31g/t silver for 360,000 gold ounces and 3.71 million ounces of silver.

In addition to Titan’s latest rock chip numbers, recent soil geochemical results have unveiled multiple extensive, open-ended arsenic anomalies within the Dynasty epithermal gold corridor.

At Papayal, the anomalies correspond with north/south and north-west/south-west-trending epithermal veins, while at Trapichillo they correspond with north-east/south-west-trending epithermal veins. The arsenic anomalies remain open to the east and west at Trapichillo, with further work underway to define their extent.

Soil sampling also revealed the presence of two large-scale copper anomalies adjacent to gold mineralisation at the Cola and Gisell prospects. Managements says Gisell represents an exciting new copper porphyry discovery about 1km in diameter, while the Cola prospect is characterised by a copper anomaly with a diameter of some 800m.

Our expanded exploration programs have highlighted large-scale soil anomalies and coincident high-grade gold-silver rock chip results more than 1.7 kilometres from currently defined resources at Papayal. It’s exciting that entirely new copper targets are being unveiled by our exploration. We believe that these new areas of copper mineralisation provide a growth opportunity and could add considerable value to the Dynasty Project.

In July, Titan unveiled a maiden mineral resource at Dynasty of 43.54 million tonnes at 2.23g/t gold and 15.7g/t silver for a sizeable 3.12 million gold ounces and 21.98 million ounces of silver, with nearly 40 per cent already in the higher-confidence “indicated” status. Dynasty also contains a high-grade component of 17.3 million tonnes grading 3.77g/t gold and 24g/t silver for a contained 2.09 million gold ounces and 13.33 million ounces of silver.

The majority of the indicated category is housed within the company’s Cerro Verde prospect, which has a resource of 28.8 million tonnes grading 2.08g/t gold and 13g/t silver for 1.92 million gold ounces and 12.04 million ounces of silver.

Management says it is planning a detailed trenching and mapping campaign within the new arsenic and copper target areas. It has also expanded its exploration program to include surface sampling and mapping to define the resource extensions targets unearthed from its latest rock chip results.

Titan expects to deliver a mineral resource upgrade for Dynasty before the end of the financial year. With gold prices currently sitting at above $3520 per ounce, the market will be keeping a close eye on what the Ecuador-based explorer can deliver in the coming weeks.

And a recent US$120 million (AU$182.4 million) deal with mining giant Hancock Prospecting’s subsidiary Hanrine Ecuadorian Exploration in return for an 80 per cent interest in Titan’s Linderos copper play, is an intriguing new company factor that will also be worth watching in 2024.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au