Location
La Poncha Project is located in the San Juan province in Argentina; 210 km NW of San Juan Capital city; 50 km south of Sable’s El Fierro Project, and 70 km north of Sable’s Don Julio Project.
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Location of La Poncha Project with respect to Sable’s Projects in San Juan
Deposit Geology
La Poncha is a large Miocene porphyry and epithermal center that includes two main mineralized zones. Poncha North shows outcropping Au-cu porphyry style mineralization within a diorite stock; the porphyry stock is hosted within Miocene volcanics with advanced argillic alteration. Poncha North was drilled tested with two holes in 2006 which returned significant intervals of low-grade Au-Cu mineralization. Sable believes that the outcropping porphyry phase is an Intermineral diorite and the next exploration campaign will target a concealed early mineral phase within the surrounding lithocap.
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Distribution of historical copper surface values at Poncha North
Poncha South exhibits a large zone of sericite-illite-chlorite alteration with Au bearing mineralized structures. Poncha South was the focus of historical exploration in La Poncha. Multiple holes drilled by previous operators (Teck, Golden Arrow, and Genesis Metals) returned high-grade and anomalous Au-Ag-Pb-Zn values. The mineralized structures show intermediate sulfidation affinity and are hosted within Miocene volcaniclastic rocks, and locally within Paleozoic metasediments. Although not outcropping, re-logging of historical core has demonstrated the presence of porphyry style mineralization that was not previously recognized.
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Location of Historical Drillholes at Poncha South with results released by previous operators
Exploration to Date
Sable signed an option agreement for the La Poncha Project in March 2020 and since then the Company has conducted geological mapping and limited rock sampling for verification of historical values. Sable has recently completed re-logging of historical core available to support a new geological interpretation; historical GroundMag and IP data is currently being re-processed. Sable is planning a first drilling campaign for Q4-2021 to Q1-2022.
Drilling
Limited drilling on the property has been undertaken with several encouraging intercepts publicly released at the time. Historical best intercepts at Poncha South announced by prior owner, Golden Arrow, included:
- 1.21 g/t Au and 3.30 g/t Ag over 266m (129m to 395m) from hole RC-PC-13, including,
- 2.19 g/t Au and 4.31 g/t Ag over 34m (129m to 163m) including:
- 4.88 g/t Au and 8.43 g/t Ag over 9 m (142m to 151m)
- 3.04 g/t Au and 7.16 g/t Ag over 61m (270m to 331m) including:
- 10.84 g/t Au and 7.93 g/t Ag over 4 m (281m to 285m); and
- 10.91 g/t gold and 24.00 g/t Ag over 8 m (305m to 313m)
Golden Arrow released several other anomalous intervals (Golden Arrow press release dated March 27, 2008) and Genesis Minerals also released several anomalous results from Poncha South (Genesis Minerals press releases dated July 30, 2012 and March 25, 2013) including:
- 4.87 g/t Au, 15.9 g/t Ag and 0.49% Zn over 12.15m and 0.62 g/t Au, 12 g/t Ag, 0.46% Pb and 0.77% Zn over 5.25m from hole 12-PODH-03
- 0.58 g/t Au, 102.2 g/t Ag, +1% Cu and 0.55% Zn over 1.95m from hole 12-PODH-02
- 0.58 g/t Au over 10.6m from 12-PODH-05
- 0.32 g/t Au over 31.6m from 12-PODH-06
Golden Arrow press release link
Genesis Minerals report link
Sable notes that the mentioned intercepts correspond to information publicly released by prior owners. Sable’s Qualified Person (QP) has not done enough work to verify these historical assay results. Only limited historical drill core is available and no RC chips were preserved by previous operators or owners.