NGEx Minerals Ltd. announced that its Phase 3 drill program has begun at its 100%-owned Lunahuasi property located in San Juan province, Argentina. The Phase 3 program follows a highly successful Phase 2 program completed in the first half of 2024, which delivered some of the highest-grade copper, gold, and silver intercepts drilled anywhere in the world and confirmed that Lunahuasi has both unusually high grades and large size potential. Phase 3 drilling intends to grow the deposit through step-out drilling and provide enough closer-spaced data to develop an initial Exploration Target as provided for in NI 43-101.
Wojtek Wodzicki, President and CEO, commented, "We are extremely excited to kick off our third and largest drill program at Lunahuasi. Phase 2 drilling showed that the Lunahuasi deposit has exceptional grades throughout a large volume measuring at least 400m by 900m by 960m. This upcoming drill program will more than double the total meters drilled to date at Lunahuasi, and is focused on continuing to expand the deposit, which remains open in all directions, and advancing our understanding of this unusually high-grade discovery. Based on results obtained to date, we believe we have drilled only a small part of the Lunahuasi high-grade deposit, and that this is a much larger system than currently delineated. With a significantly oversubscribed private placement financing of approximately C$175 million currently in progress, which we plan to close in the coming weeks, we expect to be fully funded and well positioned to execute our current plan and will have flexibility to expand the program if justified."
The new drill program has commenced with three drill rigs currently turning, and another three to be added before the end of the month. The program will consist of up to 20,000 meters of diamond drilling to follow up on 17,862 meters drilled since discovery of the deposit in March 2023, with optionality to expand the program to follow-up encouraging results. Drilling will consist of three targeted ranges of drill spacing to accomplish different objectives: long-range exploration holes (+300m spacing), mid-range step out holes (50-300m spacing), and short-range infill holes (30-50m spacing). Initial results are expected toward the end of Q4 2024, but exact timing will depend on drilling rates and assay turn-around times.
