Just over a year ago when I first spoke to Tom Larsen about Eloro’s (ELO.V) Iska Iska project in Bolivia he told me, “We’re looking to find 100 million plus tons.”
That was in January 2020. Eloro had optioned the project from its private owner and set to work exploring, mapping and sampling. Drills began to turn in September of 2020.
Iska Iska is a caldera, that is the remnants of a collapsed volcano. The rim stretches out 1.8 kilometers and is host to a number of breccia pipes. These pipes seem to be around 400 meters in diameter and, so far, four have been identified. These are the drill targets.
Iska Iska has underground workings from a previous mine and this allows Eloro, under the supervision of its Bolivian geologist Dr. Osvaldo Arce, to drill from underground drill bays. Drilling from underground eliminates the need to drill through the overburden and gives Eloro useful information from the first meter.
So, the drills have been turning. Over 4200 meters have been drilled in the Central Breccia Pipe alone but, to Larsen’s frustration, actual assayed results have been slowed to a trickle by COVID-19. Labs all over the world have been struggling to assay core. On May 4, 2021 Eloro was able to release the results from its first hole in the Central Breccia Pipe.
Company adviser Dr. Quinton Hennigh, P.Geo. commented: “Every single drill hole completed at Iska Iska to date has encountered mineralization, a very positive sign that we are dealing with a very large system. While it is remarkable to see the first hole at CBP return multiple intervals of mineralization, some high grade, it is also intriguing that hole DSB-10 has encountered over 500 m of continuous sulphide mineralization several hundred meters below. What was encountered in hole DCN-01 may simply be smoke above something even larger. We are quite anxious to see the return of results from this hole.”
In the release the highlight numbers appear: “Hole DCN-01 intersected multiple mineralized intercepts including 196.09 g Ag eq/t (150.25 g Ag/t, 0.10% Sn and 0.05 g Au/t) over 56.2m and containing 342.98 g Ag eq/t (274.0 g Ag/t, 0.16% Sn and 0.16 g Au/t) over 27.53m, from 252.84m to 309.04m in Hole DCN-01.”
I spoke to Tom Larsen shortly after the news was released.
“We’re zeroing in on an initial 43-101,” said Larsen. “We’re trying to understand the structure. It’s a big structure. We’re completing the initial magnetic survey. And we will be doing down hole IP when the equipment arrives.”
“The downhole IP will give us a look out of about 100 meters and detects sulphides and massive sulphides,” said Larsen.
The initial 43-101 will calculate an inferred resource for what Larsen refers to as a “pocket area”. “We’ll drill about 25,000 meters for the first pass inferred resource estimate,” said Larsen. Which will mean that much of Iska Iska will not be included in this first pass but will be drilled for inclusion in subsequent 43-101s.
Larsen was quick to point out that, “not only are we definition drilling the breccia pipes, but we are encountering sulphide mineralization in the varying lithologies including dacitic volcanics such as domes, granodiorite structures and the old sediment and sandstone rock.”
Larsen has always known the Iska Iska was big. The ongoing work on the property is actually “defining what “big” means”. Stay tuned, there should be regular news as the mag studies, IP and core assays are reported.