Project Overview
The wholly owned North Choco Gold project is located approximately 80 km SW of Medellin, the area is to be reduced to approximately 250 sq. km of mineral applications covering four prospective areas, including 10 historic gold mines and the NW Gold-Copper Discovery. In October 2019 Max reported a high-grade gold-copper discovery within the North Choco project area.
Max was initially drawn to the blind NW Gold-Copper Discovery area by the historic work of Ingeominas in combination with the recently completed LWIR survey. The regional silt sampling program completed in September and October highlighted creeks draining the discovery area in the opposite direction returning values of 28 ppb gold and 338 ppm copper and 11 ppb gold and 200 ppm copper respectively.
High Grade Discovery
A continuous rock chip sample collected over 1m sample interval at the new NW Gold-Copper Discovery returned 49.8 g/t gold and 4.3 % copper, with the mineralized zone continuing under the cover in both directions. The mineralization appears to be structurally controlled within granodiorite to quartz monzonite and is coincident with a Long Wave InfraRed (LWIR) anomaly (refer to Figure 1).
The NW Gold Discovery lies on the southeast contact of an LWIR Alunite anomaly. Soil sampling completed across the Alunite anomaly in the discovery area returned elevated gold and copper values and led to the discovery of the high-grade zone.
It's important to note that AngloGold Ashanti’s 2005 Quebradona gold-copper discovery and IAMGold’s 2010 Caramanta gold-copper discovery are both in a similar geological environment to the NW Gold-Copper Discovery area, located 12 km NE and 6 km W respectively (refer to Figure 2);
- Quebradona hosts a 2014 inferred mineral resource of 604 million tons grading 0.65% copper, 0.32 g/t gold, 4.4 g/t silver and 116 ppm molybdenum, representing an inferred 6.1Moz gold & 3.95Mt copper and hosts four additional porphyry centres. Source “Discovery and Geology of the Nuevo Chaquiro Cu-Au (Ag-Mo) Porphyry Deposit” by N. Winer, VP Greenfields Colombia, AngloGold Ashanti and undated.
- Caramanta hosts five porphyry centres and has recorded several drill intersections in excess of 1 g/t gold, including a highlight value of 460.6m at 1.4 g/t gold equivalent. Source “Technical Report on the Caramanta Project, Department of Antioquia, Republic of Colombia by O’Prey, 2014 for Solvista Gold Corporation.
"The NW Gold-Copper Discovery is open at both ends. The LWIR anomaly together with the elevated gold-copper soil values show potential continuation under cover and the potential at depth and therefore we believe there could be sizable amounts of both gold and copper. Our plan is to return to North Choco once accessibility becomes more readily available."
- Brett Matich, Max CEOWhat is Long Wave InfraRed (LWIR)
The analysis of LWIR physical survey information is completed through proprietary processing of Aster satellite data, and has the ability to map or identify, through reflectance spectroscopy against a set of known standards, mineral distribution over large areas covered by vegetation and shallow cover. The ground-penetrating nature of infrared radiation in the long-wave bands allows viewing of mineral spectra in the first 30 to 60 centimetres of the earth's surface through dense vegetation. Anomaly maps are then generated for a suite of the 16 most abundant minerals within the area of the survey.