EL PALMAR COPPER-GOLD PORPHYRY PROJECT – NORTHERN ECUADOR (SUNSTONE 70% – ACQUIRING UP TO 100%) Sunstone has made a significant discovery at the highly prospective El Palmar gold-copper porphyry project, located in northern Ecuador, 60km north-west of Ecuador’s capital Quito. Travel time to site from Quito is approximately 3 hours. The property sits on the regionally significant Toachi Fault Zone, in the vicinity of the 1Bt Llurimagua copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit, and in the same regional structural belt that hosts the 2.6Bt Alpala copper-gold porphyry deposit grading 0.25g/t gold and 0.37% copper, and the 0.53Bt Tandayama-America deposit grading 0.19g/t gold and 0.24% copper within the Cascabel project (see www.solgold.com.au for MRE details) (Figure 5). Sunstone is acquiring 100% of the El Palmar project and currently holds 70% under the Staged Acquisition Agreement signed on 12th August 2020. Drilling commenced in August 2021 with assays from EPDD001 delivering 163.55m at 0.71g/t gold and 0.20% copper from 52.35m, within a broad interval of 480.85m at 0.41g/t gold and 0.15% copper from 11.3m. Peak values were 1m at 1.34g/t gold and 0.41% copper from 192.2-193.2m. During the year 13,000m has been drilled at El Palmar and drilling is ongoing. The results at El Palmar continue to expand the area of known mineralisation and reveal significant higher-grade zones of >0.2% copper and 0.35g/t gold that should deliver a highly attractive goldequivalent result once metallurgical results are in hand. The results demonstrate that El Palmar now has substantial scale and grades which are in line with those seen in many of the world’s high-profile porphyry deposits. Geological modelling of the El Palmar system is suggesting a steep northerly plunge to the group of intrusives that host, and are coeval with, the gold-copper mineralisation. This interpretation, which is evolving based on 3-D modelling of drill hole logs and assays, is guiding the location of future drill holes. Soil sampling is also rapidly progressing and providing definition to additional targets within the concession in preparation for drill testing. Porphyry targets have been defined to the southeast near the Toachi fault, and also immediately northeast of the main El Palmar target. Both of these regions exhibit geochemical signatures typical of the alteration caps that lie above porphyry systems. Soil sampling is now progressing to the north and covering multiple areas of outcropping epithermal gold mineralisation, including where historical surface rock chip sampling yielded an 85m-long (and open) zone from which 101 surface samples averaged 1.2 g/t Au, 25 g/t Ag and 0.16% Cu, with peak values for these elements being 6.47 g/t Au, 225g/t Ag and 0.78% Cu. 10 SUNSTONE METALS LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT 2022 Sunstone Metals Limited Annual Report 2022
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE2NDg3