(Map via O2Gold Inc. Click to enlarge.)
When Stockhouse Editorial last covered artisanal producer
O2Gold Inc. (TSX-V: OTGO, Forum) in-depth, the Colombia-based company had just begun to tell investors about what it found in their project outside of Medellin, Colombia.
More than 2,000 meters of drilling has been completed at the Aurora mine, where
average grade has been 7.44 g/t Au and has shown a proven extension of more than 600 meters.
But beyond the Aurora brownfield, where the company has exploitation and production permits, there are several other prospective brownfields. The company has completed more than 13,000 meters of ground geophysics in Aparecida, Botella, Esmerald, and Quintanillo. All of these brownfields are within 5km of the Aurora mine, making a hug-and-spoke production model very viable. The geophysics campaign has identified 18 mineralized veins, all confirmed with geochemistry, with projected extensions of up up to 900 meters.
This news marked an exciting start to the year for O2Gold, whose massive, contiguous 30 square kilometre (30,000 hectare) land package includes several brownfields and largely under-explored greenfields.
The golden opportunity in Colombia:
Colombia is quickly becoming a top mining district. As an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member country with a growing economy and one of the
lowest inflation rates in Latin America, it is hard to ignore how highly prospective the mining sector of this thriving and vibrant country has become. Colombia hosts high-grade underground mines and a rich history of mining across various commodities like gold, silver, and copper. But what Colombia has in resources, it has lacked in overall development. This is largely the result of a 50-year civil conflict that made prospecting and development of natural resources burdensome. That has all changed since the country signed a peace accord with the FARC, in 2012.
The company’s Otú Central Project is home to interests in 26 mining claim titles and applications in the Segovia / Zaragoza regions of Antioquia in Colombia, which has seen more than 100 million ounces of discoveries and hosts some of the largest gold companies in the world. The Otú Fault, where the claim titles and applications are located, has historically produced more than 17 million ounces of gold.
The work by O2Gold to drill within the Aurora mine title aimed to define the extension and depth of the gold-mineralized quartz vein, which was prospected for artisanal mining years ago, to support a 50 tonnes per day production plan in the first stage implementation. The Aurora mine is licensed for exploitation—with all environmental permissions and studies completed—for 30 years. The company confirmed in
a news release that it had secured all of the necessary licenses to operate at this level of production and, as the mineralization allows, the mine plan can be scaled.
All holes drilled to date have crossed a continuous mineralized zone more than 600 meters in strike, where a quartz vein with sulfides shows a downdip extension of more than 150 metres. The vein’s projected extension is more than 900 metres. The company will continue to drill the main Aurora Vein to prove its extension along dip and strike. There are indications that it reaches into the Quintanillo Brownfield to the south, where an additional 2,000 m of scout drilling will delineate the vein system.
Work to date:
O2Gold began a
2,000 metre drilling program at the Aparecida Brownfield in Antioquia, Colombia in October, 2021.
Exploration at Aparecida – which has been the site of artisanal production going back more than a century – indicates an anastomosed pattern with vein mineralization in close proximity.
O2Gold has documented nine gold veins in the area and three veinlets at surface. The Fortaleza Vein, the company’s first target, has a projected extension of at least 400 metres with rock channel samples returning up to 42.3 g/t gold and 49.6 g/t silver.
O2Gold has also been recuperating the formerly productive Aurora mining tunnels and its two entrances. It has reinforced the mine’s adits and tunnels, installing both electricity and ventilation, and the more than 1,000 meters of tunnels have been drained since Q1 2022. With the tunnels accessible, the company will begin a systematic sampling of the mineralization.
A prior campaign of rock chip sampling performed by Bullet, showed sampled with more than 50 g/t of gold and an average grade of more than 8 g/t.
Drilling has been focused on the Aurora vein, with the intention of
confirming the vein’s mineralized system at depth. AUR-21-002, located 100 meters north of the first drill hole, intercepted the main Aurora vein with grades of 19.26 and 10.5 g/t gold over 0.7 metres at 23.1 metres deep. The next hole, AUR-21-003, intersected gold and silver between 159.2 and 163.2 metres deep.
Investment conclusion:
O2Gold Inc. represents a solid play for investors, boasting the added benefit of having a title to their names.
The gold market is having a good start to the year, experiencing a bull run that has more upside potential. The precious metal’s value has already risen back above the $1,800 (USD) mark, many analysts believe its price could rise to $2,500 area this year.
With the right exploration and production company, discovering the true potential of the country's widespread mineralized landscape could present tremendous economic potential, yield, and expansive growth.
Investors should keep an eye on O2Gold as the team continues to release results from its ongoing drill program at its project in Colombia.
To find out more about the company and projects, visit their website at
otugold.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.