Venidero Project, Santa Cruz, Argentina

The Venidero Gold-Silver project covers 7,996 hectares in the west of the Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is located 60km south of Newmont’s Cerro Negro gold mine (2021 Reserves of 2.56 million ounces of gold grading 8.89 g/t - Newmont reserves release).

Outcropping veins at Venidero are hosted in the same Jurassic Chon Aike volcanic formation as the Cerro Negro deposit.  Surface rock chip sampling has returned grades up to 4.45 g/t gold. Textures and geochemistry indicate that the undrilled veins seen at surface reflect a high level of emplacement within an epithermal gold vein system. Clearly, drilling is required to test the veins at the deeper levels favourable for gold deposition. This was the case for the Cerro Moro veins system where the higher grades were commonly occurring below a depth of 50m.  

In October 2022, Rugby completed a 132-line km ground magnetic program. It showed the main Gorgonzola vein structure continues for an additional 10 km to the south as a strong magnetic low structure that bifurcates toward the southeast. During the survey 7 areas with blocks of vein material up to 1 meter in diameter were discovered. Six of these vein occurrences are related to the strong southeast trending magnetic lows (bifurcations). These lows are suggestive of the presence of siliceous veins.

Venidero is emerging into an extensive epithermal vein field with new veins being discovered as work progresses on the project. An exploration campaign comprising geological mapping and geochemical rock chip planning is scheduled in for early 2025. An IP geophysical survey is to follow in 2025.  IP may define sulfide-rich gold silver mineralised veins at depth, similar to those at Cerro Negro and Cerro Moro. Drilling will follow but is not yet scheduled.