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El Camino
Option Agreement – See Latest News
The El Camino property is an IOCG (iron-oxide-copper-gold) prospect located 380 km northwest of the City of Salta, Salta Province, northwest Argentina. 100% owned by Aldebaran. Access from the City of Salta is by good paved roads for the first 150 km and by all-weather dirt roads for the remaining part of the road to La Casualidad Mine. Access to the property from the mine is by a 2 km long rough dirt track. The total travelling time from Salta is estimated at 8 hours.
*Please contact ben.cherrington@aldebaranresources.com if you would like more information about this project.
Geology and Mineralization
The mineralization at El Camino is represented by hematite ± fluorite ± quartz and copper oxides, mainly in hematite-rich breccias, stockworks and sheeted veinlets hosted in felsic volcanic rocks of Permian-Triassic age. The alteration forms a crudely triangular shape zone with an asymmetrical pattern, in excess of 2,000 m long, 1,000 m wide and pinching to the south. Alteration assemblages are non-common but typical of the IOGC systems, and include k-feldspathization, intense hematite, chlorite-hematite, sericite/kaolin-silica-hematite, and chlorite-k-feldspar with silica-hematite veinlets and k-feldspar biotite/chlorite Hematite alteration. In the core of the altered zone, matrix-supported, clast-supported and crackle breccias are abundant. Alteration is variable and includes hematite-rich, chlorite-rich, chlorite/biotite-k-feldspar-alunite-magnetite and CuOx-hematite as replacements within these breccias.
Exploration potential is open in all directions under colluvium cover, with large areas potentially mineralized still untested to date within the property.
Exploration History
1996: The El Camino prospect was discovered in 1996 by Mansfield Minerals Inc.
2000-2001: Teck performed an exploration program under a joint venture agreement with Mansfield, which included sampling and a small diamond drilling campaign totalling 719 m. Highlights from this four drill hole program can be seen in Table 1. Best results in Teck’s trench channel sampling include:
| –TEC-E: | 42 m @ 1.33 g/t Au; 0.52 % Cu; 1.11 % Pb; 1.27 % Zn and 41.6 g/t Ag includes 26 m @ 2.30 g/t Au; 0.66 % Cu; 1.60 % Pb; 1.40 % Zn and 60.4 g/t Ag |
| –TEC-02: | 24 m @ 1.00 g/t Au; 0.16 % Cu; 0.13 % Pb; 0.55 % Zn and 15.52 g/t Ag includes 6 m @ 1.65 g/t Au; 0.17 % Cu; 1.33 % Pb; 1.70 % Zn and 28.9 g/t Ag |
Teck returned the property to Mansfield in 2001.
2002-2007: Mansfield completed several field exploration programs in the area including mapping, systematic soil sampling, and collection of prospective grab samples, Induced Polarization and Ground Magnetometry surveys, trenching and drilling.
2008: The El Camino property was transferred to Pachamama as part of a restructuring of Mansfield.
2012-2016: In 2012 Regulus received this project through the amalgamation with Pachamama and very limited work was done in following years.
2017: Regulus geologists completed a reconnaissance campaign and took six rock chip samples in areas of interest confirming gold and copper mineralization (Figure 2).
2018: The El Camino project, together with Rio Grande, Aguas Calientes and other early stage Argentina projects, was spun out into Aldebaran.
Table 1 : Highlights from Teck Corporation 4 diamond drill hole campaign, totalling 719 m.
| Drill Hole | From (m) | To (m) | Length (m) | Ag (ppm) | Cu (%) | Zn (%) | Pb (%) | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FB-001 | 24.08 | 30.18 | 6.10 | 10.50 | 0.15 | 0.23 | * | Manifest Zone |
| FB-002 | 3.05 | 23.00 | 19.95 | 8.34 | * | 0.52 | 0.15 | Discovery Zone |
| Including | 5.00 | 11.28 | 6.28 | 17.90 | * | 0.81 | 0.39 | Discovery Zone |
| FB-003 | 22.56 | 37.40 | 14.84 | 15.00 | 0.10 | 0.20 | 0.20 | Discovery Breccia Zone |
| Including | 22.56 | 24.24 | 1.68 | 69.00 | 0.37 | 0.35 | 0.40 | Discovery Breccia Zone |
| * Denotes <0.10% |