Exploration History

The Altar project was first explored and drilled by CRA/Rio Tinto
(2,841 m, 7 holes).

Peregrine, a Canadian exploration company, subsequently optioned the property from Rio Tinto.

Peregrine expanded the property to >12,200 ha and completed drilling to define an initial mineral resource estimate at Altar Central and Altar East. (56,761 m, 146 drill holes)

Peregrine Metals was acquired by Stillwater for ~US$490 MM for its Altar project.

A total of 38,380 m was drilled by Stillwater.
(97,981 m total drilled, 80 holes)

Stillwater refocuses on PGM production, Altar declared a non-core asset.

Exploration at Altar was limited to surface mapping and the collection of baseline environmental data.

US$4 MM was spent on drilling which led to discovery of the QDM Cu-Au Radio porphyry.
(4,893 m, 8 holes)

Sibanye completed their acquisition of Stillwater, retaining a 100% interest in the Altar project.

US$1.7 MM was spent on drilling focusing on the QDM porphyry discovered in 2016.
(5,630 m, 7 holes)

Drilling by Sibanye-Stillwater – cost sharing agreement in place with Regulus / Aldebaran.
(4,923 m, 3 holes + 1 extension of deeper drilling by Sibanye-Stillwater)

Aldebaran JV agreement with Sibanye-Stillwater to acquire the Altar project finalized.

Aldebaran drilled 5,400 m in four diamond core holes to explore and expand the higher-grade zones to identify a higher-grade resource within the project, as well as identify and drill test several new target areas. Two of the three holes that reached their target depth intersected long intervals of higher than current resource grade material, one of which (QDM-19-41) was the discovery of a new porphyry centre.

The Company completed a comprehensive ground magnetics survey of the Altar project area, with the purpose of understanding the structural framework and identifying the location of potential faults which management believes have important controls on the distribution of the mineralization.

Before COVID-19 measures closed the camp at the end of March 2020, the Company also completed the majority of a mapping initiative that generated the first systematic surface geological map since discovery of the deposit in the early to mid 1990's. The mapping program uncovered various new geological relationships which aid in better understanding the deposit and identified several unexplored areas exhibiting favourable geology and alteration which warrant future follow-up work. In addition, a talus-fine geochemical survey consisting of approximately 1,500 samples collected to-date has been completed over the main project area at Altar. Geological mapping and talus fine sampling in the more peripheral portions of the project area will be rescheduled for completion early in the next field season. To compliment these field activities, the Company acquired regional-scale ASTER and district/deposit-scale Worldview-3 satellite imagery and hyperspectral data that will add valuable data related to the distribution of the hydrothermal alteration associated with the Cu-Au mineralization, as well as provide insights into new target areas. A detailed structural analysis of this imagery is also in progress and will augment the geological mapping study. 

These 2020 field programs have been conducted alongside the on-going re-logging program of approximately 120,000 m of drill core.