Pepas MRE drilling near completion
Orosur Mining Inc. has provided an update on its exploration activities, with the Pepas resource modelling and NI43-101 report process underway, highlighted by a significant drill intercept of 83.7m at 4.29g/t Au from surface in hole PEP067. Additionally, initial drilling at the El Pantano project in Argentina has confirmed a low sulphidation epithermal mineral system, with assays pending, and the company is progressing towards a Mineral Resource Estimate for Pepas, expected in January 2026.
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- Resource modelling and NI43-101 report process under way
- First holes from El Pantano drilling program confirm a low sulphidation epithermal mineral system - awaiting assays.
London, December 12th, 2025. Orosur Mining Inc. ("Orosur" or the "Company") (TSXV/AIM:OMI), is pleased to announce an update on the progress of exploration activities at the Company's exploration projects at Anzá in Colombia ("Anzá) and El Pantano in Argentina ("El Pantano").
Anzá - Colombia
These titles and applications are owned by two Colombian companies, Minera Anzá, and Minera Monte Aguila, both of which are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company. The latter of these was acquired by Orosur in November 2024 from the Company's previous JV partners, Newmont Mining and Agnico Eagle Mines. Orosur thus owns 100% of the Anzá Project.
Since acquiring 100% control, the Company has focussed its attention on three prospects:
- Pepas - a shallow, high-grade body of gold mineralisation that the Company is endeavouring to move to an initial Mineral Resource Estimate ('MRE') in the near term.
- APTA - a high-grade body of gold mineralisation that has to date seen 38,000m of drilling, but is not yet sufficiently understood geologically to allow a MRE to be calculated. The Company plans to undertake additional drilling at APTA in 2026, with the objective of advancing it toward an MRE.
- El Cedro - a large gold porphyry system in the south of the Project area. The Company has completed a large soil sampling program and plans to undertake a maiden drill program here in early 2026.
Figure 1. Anzá Project
As announced on 14th July 2025, the Company had taken the formal decision to commence infill drilling at its Pepas gold prospect at Anzá, with the objective of moving Pepas to a NI43-101 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate as quickly as possible.
The Company's external geological and resource consultants visited the Anza site at the start of November to carry out the necessary QAQC verification of drilling and sampling and to work with the Orosur geological team in the development of a new NI43-101 technical report for the Anza project, which will include a MRE for the Pepas Prospect.
One outcome of this visit was the recommendation by the consultants for an extension of the final stages of the MRE drill-out program, with several additional holes within and outside the Pepas deposit to define the boundaries of the current deposit envelope and obtain a better understanding of the size and controls of previously defined high-grade zones.
Holes drilled outside the deposit envelope have returned the lower grade halo mineralisation as expected and have provided valuable information as to the nature of the some of the controlling structures of Pepas. The one hole of this current batch drilled inside the deposit envelope (PEP-067) returned a result of 83.7m @ 4.29g/t Au from surface.
| Hole Number | From (m) | To (m) | Interval (m) | Au (g/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PEP067 | 0 | 83.7 | 83.7 | 4.29 |
| including | 21.6 | 39.05 | 17.45 | 7.12 |
| Including | 61.7 | 72.5 | 10.8 | 8.06 |
| PEP068 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 0.67 |
| 17.4 | 22 | 4.6 | 0.37 | |
| 47.55 | 51 | 3.45 | 0.34 | |
| PEP069 | 0 | 2.25 | 2.25 | 0.96 |
| PEP070 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1.34 |
| 37.7 | 40.45 | 2.75 | 1.11 | |
| 84.1 | 149.4 | 65.3 | 0.68 | |
| PEP071 | 0 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 0.42 |
| 71.35 | 78 | 6.65 | 0.45 |
Table 1. Latest drill Intercepts, Pepas Prospect
Figure 2. Plan of holes
Figure 3. Section, PEP067
It is expected that the Pepas drill-out program will continue for the next few days and the resulting MRE and technical report can then be completed during January 2026.
Metallurgy
As part of the MRE process, a large diameter PQ drill hole was completed specifically to provide sufficient material for a comprehensive metallurgical testing program. These samples have been sent to the metallurgical testing facility of ALS Global in British Columbia, where the work is now well advanced. It is hoped this program may be completed by the end of the year and thus feed into the Technical Report and MRE.
Wider Exploration - Anza
The Company had previously announced that it had planned to undertake a detailed airborne magnetic survey over the EL Cedro and APTA prospects in December, as a tool to provide additional guidance for drilling in early 2026. The Company is engaging with contractors to commission the survey.
Mapping, sampling and trenching is also underway in the environs of the Pepas deposit, as part of an ongoing program to explore for extensions and/or repetitions of Pepas. Once the current resource drilling program is completed in coming weeks, it is likely the rig will be shifted to targets being developed around Pepas.
El Pantano - Argentina
The El Pantano Project is an early-stage gold/silver exploration project in Santa Cruz province, southern Argentina.
The Project comprises approximately 550km2 of contiguous granted licences in the prolific Deseado Massif of Santa Cruz Province, roughly 45km from Anglo Gold's Cerro Vanguardia mining camp and 90km SE of Newmont Mining's giant Cerro Negro mine.
El Pantano is subject to an Exploration & Joint Venture ("JV") agreement ("Agreement") with private Argentinean company Deseado Dorado S.A.S and its shareholders ("Deseado"), the details of which were announced on February 15th 2022.
The Company currently owns 51% of El Pantano, having met its obligation to spend US$1m in exploration expenditure by February 2025. The Company is now in Phase 2 of the joint venture, whereby it may earn an additional 49% equity in the project (taking the Company to 100% ownership) by investing US$2m in the two years to February 2027. Upon such an event, the original vendors would retain a 2% NSR royalty, 1% of which the Company could purchase for US$1m at its discretion.
Following several years of surface field work, the Company commenced the first phase of drilling ever undertaken within the project area in early November 2025. Between 3,000-4,000m is planned across the breadth of the project area as a reconnaissance program designed to address a number of geological questions:
- Test sources of geochemical anomalism
- Assess a variety of Induced Polarisation responses
- Intersect, if possible, mineralised structures indicative of the low sulphidation epithermal model being postulated at El Pantano
- Gain understanding of the vertical variations in the system, especially in relation to the potential for fluid boiling.
In a general sense, the broad objective of the program is to determine if a mineral system is present at El Pantano, and if so, develop exploration plans for further work.
Figure 4. El Pantano geology and geochemistry
Samples from the El Pantano project are sent to the preparation facility and fire assay laboratory of Alex Stewart Laboratories in Perito Moreno to be assayed for gold. Pulps are then sent to the larger Alex Stewart facility in Mendoza for multi-element analysis.
To date, seven holes have been completed with samples from the first five submitted to the laboratory in Perito Moreno for fire assay gold analysis, to be followed by multi- element analysis, including silver, from the Mendoza facility.
Visually, several of the holes have intersected extremely encouraging structures showing textures and mineralogy consistent with what is seen in other low sulphidation epithermal systems in the region. In particular, the presence of colloform banding in several intersected narrow veins is a key indicator often seen in the core of low sulphidation epithermal systems.
Preliminary interpretation would suggest that vein textures are indicative of lower temperatures, albeit with some examples of higher temperature overprinting. This would suggest that current drilling is still higher in the system, above the boiling zone.
Fig 5. Colloform banding, El Pantano
The Company is confident that it has achieved its general objective of proving the existence of a substantial mineral system. This is an extremely positive and unusual result for the first drilling program on a grass roots project. The challenge, however, is identifying where, within the mineral system, economic widths and grades may have been deposited.
Drilling is progressing faster than anticipated and thus it is planned that this program will be completed toward the end of January 2026. Once complete, all new and historical data will be compiled as the key component to a targeting program that will develop the next phase of work.
Orosur CEO Brad George commented:
"Pepas is now in the final mile of its MRE process and the pieces are coming together for a January report. In the meantime, we are lining up targets for when the rig is freed up later in December. Drilling at El Pantano, as with any undrilled project, was high risk, but we have hit what we hoped to hit - a previously unknown mineral system. Now we need to focus in, and given the scale of the system, that is a challenge….but a good challenge".
Cleaned text: letterheads, contacts and legal notices removed. View the original announcement ↗ · Company filings. Not investment advice.