CERRO VANGUARDIA CONTINUED
GEOLOGY
The Cerro Vanguardia district is located within the southern Deseado Massif in the Santa Cruz province of Patagonia, Argentina.
The Deseado Massif is an extensive rhyolite province of Middle to Upper Jurassic age. The most important geological feature
in the Deseado Massif is an extended plateau formed by pyroclastic, epiclastic and extrusive rocks which were part of a strong
explosive volcanic event associated with regional extensional tectonics developed during the Middle Upper Jurassic and related to
the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The rocks representing this magmatism are termed the Bajo Pobre Formation and Bahia Laura
Group. The Bajo Pobre Formation comprises andesites, basalts and mafic volcanic agglomerates. The Bahia Laura Group includes
both the Chon Aike Formation (ignimbrites, tuffs, volcanic breccias, agglomerates, lavas and domes) and the La Matilde Formation
(tuffs and epiclastic volcanics interlayered with ignimbrites).
Deposit type
The Middle-Upper Jurassic ignimbrites and volcanic rocks from Chon Aike Formation host the low-sulphidation epithermal gold and
silver deposit. The thickness of the ignimbrite sequence is estimated to have exceeded 1,000m but some lateral variations have
been identified across the district. Epithermal Au-Ag bearing structures cut across all Jurassic rocks in the stratigraphy. The two
main ignimbrite units, the Masiva-Lajosa and Granosa, host the majority of the mineralised veins.
The Masiva-Lajosa ignimbrite occurs at the top of the sequence while the Granosa ignimbrite occurs towards the bottom. These
two ignimbrites are separated by two thinner, polymictic ignimbrite units (Brechosa and Brechosa Base) and a sequence of stratified
crystal to ash-rich tuffs (Estratificada unit). The base of the sequence is a mixed unit of stratified ignimbrite intercalated with fine-
grained tuffs (Estratificada Inferior ignimbrite).
Mineralisation style
Cerro Vanguardia is located in the core of the 60,000km
2
Deseado Massif, one of the most extensive volcanic complexes in
southern Patagonia. The Deseado Massif is an extensive rhyolite province of Middle to Upper Jurassic age deposited over Paleozoic
low-grade metamorphic basement rocks. These rocks are exposed in erosional windows through overlying Cretaceous sediments
and Tertiary to Quaternary basalts. The orebodies comprise a series of low-sulphidation epithermal vein deposits containing gold
and large quantities of silver which is produced as a by-product.
Mineralisation characteristics
The mineralisation is concentrated in steeply-dipping quartz veins that cut the at-lying ignimbrites and volcanoclastic rocks.
The Cerro Vanguardia district contains around 100 gold and silver-bearing epithermal veins for a cumulative exposed vein strike
extension of more than 240km, of which 57 veins are currently known to contain economic gold and silver mineralisation.
The veins at Cerro Vanguardia consist mainly of quartz and adularia and contain minor electrum, native gold, silver sulphides and
native silver as fine-grained disseminations. Vein textures are mainly characterised by colloform-crustiform banding, pseudomorphic
quartz-lattice textures, massive-to-vuggy quartz veins and vein breccias.
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Ar/
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Ar dating on adularia from the Osvaldo Diez vein
yielded ages of around 153Ma while the age of the thick sequence of ignimbrites hosting the veins has been dated between 166Ma
to 150Ma.
EXPLORATION
The annual diamond drilling programme totaled 8,617m, yielding 0.155M new gold ounces (Veins + Stockworks) and 4.2M
new silver ounces in veins such as Atila 2, Atila Sur, Concepcin, Jani, Joana, Osvaldo Diez, Oveja, Potrero, Sandra, Teresa and
Vanguardia 3. An extensive trenching programme was carried out mainly in the north and south parts of the district, excavating
309 new trenches totalling 21,788m. 355 channels were cut in trenches and outcrops of 33 different veins, with a total length of
9,683m. 56km of ground magnetics were surveyed, covering the geologically more interesting sectors of the south, southwest and
the northern district, in areas such as Atila, Cuncuna, Dora, El Lazo, Molino-Vbora, Norma, Teresa, El Trio Norte, over the gravels
in the south and over the eastern boundary of the Cerro El Uno basaltic plateau in the southwest. 3.19km of Horizontal Loop
Electromagnetic (HLEM) surveys were carried out over Carmela, Osvaldo Diez Sur and Teresa veins, and also in the new Condor
area located nearby, several kilometres northwest NW of the Cerro Vanguardia district.
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SECTION 5 / AMERICAS