Chicho Project

The Chicho project, acquired by Fomicruz in 2017, is located in the center of the Deseado Massif, at 30 km to the north of the Cerro Vanguardia mine, and about 15 km to the east of the Pingüino project (owned by Austral Gold). The project is secured by one property of 4317ha.

This project includes several siliceous veins that are concentrated in its southwestern portion, and that add up a total of around 3500 linear meters, in a partially discontinuous way. In addition, there are several stockworks and rock outcrops crossed by disseminated veinlets. Most of the veins follow a northwest orientation, although a few are oriented to the northeast; they have widths that locally exceed two meters; and they show a variety of quartz textures, including: massive, saccharoidal, replacement, and comb; and some of them also include considerable amounts of breccias with fragments from previous veins, and abundant iron oxides in their cement.

Fomicruz has mapped the lithology of the project, it has collected 188 rock-chip samples from the veins, as well as 383 rock channel samples from trenches; all of those samples were chemically analyzed by an international commercial laboratory. More than 2600 small rock and float samples were collected and partially analyzed by a portable XRF equipment, and an a reflectance spectrometer, for studying their geochemistry and hydrothermal alterations. Also a magnetometric survey was carried out along a total of 100 linear kilometers, covering the southern half of the project. Finally, Fomicruz drilled 1162 m in 13 diamond boreholes.

At this moment Fomicruz still has to thoroughly interpret all the data that was collected in the Chicho project, to determine the next drilling targets. However, preliminary interpretations of some of the data has already been carried out. The spectroscopic data revealed a clear zonation respective to the main veins; kaolinite and Fe oxides are the predominant alteration minerals immediately surrounding the veins, while smectites and chlorite predominate in areas increasingly further away from them. Buddingtonite, an ammonia-bearing feldspar of hydrothermal origin, has been detected in several samples, but its meaning in relation to the hydrothermal system has not been determined yet. After these interpretations were elaborated, more samples were collected to increase the detail of the alteration mapping, but they are still being studied.

A simple preliminary interpretation from the laboratory assays, indicate that in the southwest portion of the project, where veins are abundant, As, Sb, and locally Au, are anomalous, with maximum concentrations of 2280, 1505 and 4 ppm respectively. Concentrations of antimony and arsenic are high in the majority of the samples, while those of Au are detectable in 90% of the samples, and are above 0.5 ppm in 8% of the samples extracted from NW-trending veins. The Ag, Cu and Pb concentrations are relatively low; those of silver, reach only 20 ppm, exceeds 10 ppm and only 2 % of the samples.