Cercal drills first hole in Portugal

The first drill hole on Cercal Minerals’ (ASE) joint-venture base metal property in Portugal has been completed to a depth of 803 metres.

The vertical hole, the first of eight, was drilled to test gravity anomaly “C,” which was inferred to have a source depth of 600-800 metres. At a vertical depth of 800 metres, the hole had deviated 190 metres to the southwest.

Within the inferred target depth of the anomaly, the hole intersected two zones of sericitic felsic volcanics with disseminated pyrite, minor sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena, arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite from 485 to 620 metres and 655 to 705 metres.

The area being drilled is underlain by rocks typical of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, which hosts prominent base metal deposits such as Neves Corvo with reserves of 66 million tonnes averaging 4.6% copper and 3.5% zinc. The company says the gravity anomaly remains unexplained since no significant sulphide mineralization was intersected and there were no large variations in rock density within the lithologies in the hole. The hole will be further tested using a downhole electromagnetic survey.

The next hole to be drilled will test gravity anomaly “A” which has an indicated strike length of 2,000 metres and a depth of 400-600 metres.