Orenada 2 (Old 2007/2008 high grade gold data) Orenada has 750,000 ounces of gold resource, but 537,000 of those ounces are located within 250m of the surface. Alexandria is currently focused on the 250m area.
The transformation of Orenada should improve the economical viability of the project. We should realize meaningful increase in both grade and ounces.
Prior to 2015, Orenada was drilled as strictly a bulk-tonnage deposit. It is a disseminated deposit - and still is, but we now have firm knowledge of high grade veins within the disseminated body. Little was known about the veins in the past. Alexandria performed a study recently (2014/2015) to increase the knowledge base. They drill tested the findings of the study in 2015 with 2 drill holes (at Orenada 4), and the drill results confirmed the conclusions of the study.
Firstly, ``the existence of a suite of low angle, high-grade gold-quartz veins, dipping at roughly 30o to the southwest within the Current Resources area``.
Prior to 2015, 100% of the drill holes at Orenada were drilled from the north, and oriented south. As Orenada was drilled as strictly a bulk tonnage deposit (evenly distributed mineralization), and with little knowledge of these high grade vein structures, the drill holes were essentially travelling in parallel with the veins, more or less (maybe the drill hole was more steep than the veins). The past drill holes might have crossed with the veins from time to time, but they were not necessarily colliding head on, to maximize exposure – as they were running somewhat in the same direction. Some holes were likely hitting the veins when they crossed, but single drill holes were likely not penetrating the veins in a stacked manner (and maybe not always hitting the meat of the veins).
As mentioned, Alexandria tested the findings of the study with 2 drill holes in 2015, with positive confirmation.
Alexandria moved the drills to a south position and oriented them to the north, in order to penetrate the high grade veins square on – lined up (with the veins dipping moderately southwest).
In addition to hitting the high grade veins (at least the ones lined up along the drill hole path down - there are many others in different paths that will need similar drilling), this position also allowed for long (bulk tonnage) intervals, as the lower grade disseminated gold (say, 1.0 – 2.0 g/t gold) surrounds the high grade veins.
As mentioned already, the old drill holes did tap the high grade veins also. They just were not positioned to hit them in a complete and stacked manner through individual drill holes. Also, the old holes were not able to test the down dip continuation of the bulk mineralization like the 2015 holes.
The 2 holes that tested this new approach in 2015 were entirely focused on Orenada 4. As such, this new approach was not applied to Orenada 2.
Alexandria is now running a14 hole drill program at Orenada - eight holes at Orenada 4 and six holes at Orenada 2. You can see the location of the holes on pg 16 of the Corp Presenation. You can also see a core sample from Orenada 2 (probably from the current program).
There is drill evidence from the 2007/2008 drill program to suggest that high grade veins could exist at Orenada 2 in the same manner as Orenada 4.
I went back to the 2007/2008 Orenada 2 drill program and found the following high grade intersections for Orenada 2:
* DH OAX-07-16
11.44 g/t gold over 8.15m (drilled width, not true width)
* DH AAX-07-11
5.29 g/t gold over 12.90m (drilled width)
* DH OAX-07-32
4.07 g/t gold over 8.65m (drilled width)
* DH OAX-08-51
4.08 g/t gold over 6.00m
* DH 407-22 (historical hole)
8.12 g/t gold over 4.87m (drilled width)
The 2007/2008 Orenada 2 data is suggesting we have a chance of seeing stacked (though maybe short) high grade veins within a (large) low-grade disseminated bulk-tonnage envelope, similar to what we observed using the new approach at orenada 4 (in 2015).