Exploration History

Aldebaran has announced commencement of a new 2022-23 drill program at the Altar project. See Nov 15, 2021 news release here.

A drill program was completed in H1 2022 to test for extensions of mineralization of the Altar Central and Altar East deposits, as well as testing for extensions of porphyry mineralization and provide sufficient drill hole density to support a maiden 43-101 mineral resource calculation at the Radio Porphyry target. Hole ALD-22-221 intercepted a long run of mineralization indicating that the geophysical anomaly correlates well with mineralization, which opens a very large new area for additional exploration, see the results here.

A drill program was completed in H1 2021 to test extensions to zones of higher-grade mineralization, and test areas identified during the relogging and geological modeling process as having a high potential to extend the footprint of the known mineralization.
Hole QDM-042 hit one of the best intercepts to date at the Altar project, see the results here.
A 3D IP-MT to define new targets was completed on parts of the project.
For further details see the 2021 Exploration Program here.

Extensive field work and relogging program.
For further details see the 2020 Exploration Program page here.

Aldebaran drilled 5,418 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 (see Oct 3, 2019 news release).
For further details, see the 2019 Drill Program Page here.

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

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).
For further details, see the 2018 Drill Program page here. and the drill results here on the Sibanye Stillwater website.

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

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

US$4 MM was spent on drilling which led to discovery of the QDM Cu-Au Radio porphyry.
(4,503 m, 8 holes)

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

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

A total of 37,215 m was drilled by Stillwater.
 

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

Peregrine expanded the property to >12,200 ha and completed drilling to define an initial mineral resource estimate at Altar Central and Altar East. (58,974 m drilled on the project)

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

The Altar project was first explored and drilled by CRA/Rio Tinto
(2,839 m, 7 holes).