In the last quarter, the Hualilán gold project, located in the San Juan province, just 120 km from the capital, has continued to advance in its exploration and development phase. Challenger Gold, the project's owner, has provided a detailed report on the work carried out, highlighting a positive exploration balance and the improvement of various project variables.
By Panorama Minero
During the quarter, a 1,910-meter geotechnical drilling program was completed. This program is an essential part of the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), which is progressing favorably with the completion of all critical elements. Notable achievements include the restructuring of the open-pit operating cost model, pit optimizations using a software called Whittle, mine design and scheduling, and improvements to the underground stopes.
In the hydrogeological domain, four drill holes and flow tests were conducted, and the hydrogeological modeling of the project was also completed. Meanwhile, processing cost models were updated, including the cost of the heap leach platform, and all critical metallurgical tests for the PFS were completed. "The results of the metallurgical tests continue to be encouraging, improving the project's economic outlook," they stated.
Another highlight from the company is the improvement of five material opportunities identified in the Scoping Study, which have been successfully incorporated into the PFS. Additionally, an independent carbon model from the Hualilán Scoping Study demonstrated that the mine will have the lowest carbon intensity of gold mines listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and will be in the lowest quartile of carbon emissions per ounce globally.
The geotechnical drilling program included a total of 1,910 meters of diamond drilling to verify the open-pit design parameters, completed in the second week of July. In addition to the geotechnical drilling, an Acoustic Televiewer program was conducted, which uses sound waves to obtain detailed images of the interior of the drill holes. This was done both in the geotechnical drill holes and in a series of historical drilling to gather additional information for the Hualilán geotechnical model.
Finally, underground stope optimizations using the Mineable Stope Optimiser (MSO) were completed with variable underground mining costs. The MSO's have been clipped to the PFS base case pit showing approximately 40-50% of the Scoping Study underground mining inventory remains underneath the base case PFS open pit. Underground mine design and scheduling is underway.
"These advancements underscore Challenger Gold's commitment to developing the Hualilán gold project, enhancing its economic viability and minimizing its environmental impact," concluded the company.
