Pinnacle Silver and Gold (PINN) has completed an airborne LiDAR survey over the high-grade El Potrero gold-silver project in Durango, Mexico.
The survey covered the entire 11 square kilometres of the property and was flown by Eagle Mapping Ltd. of Langley, British Columbia.
Reprocessing and interpretation of the data will be conducted by GeoCloud Analytics of Melbourne, Australia and will take approximately two weeks, with final results available by early to mid-December.
LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to ‘see through’ vegetation and soil cover to measure distances, with 15-30 cm scale accuracy, to underlying rock surfaces.
It can map out features like lithological contacts that can be related to mineralization but may not be exposed at surface.
Pinnacle’s survey also included colour aerial photography with 10-15 cm resolution that will assist in surface exploration and planning of infrastructure upgrades.
“Although we have been able to follow and map out the Dos de Mayo vein system along strike for approximately 1,600 metres so far, our geologists are restricted by the amount of outcrop exposure,” said Robert Archer, Pinnacle’s chief executive.
“The LiDAR survey should allow us to connect the dots along this structural trend and allow us to better define not only the main vein but parallel and splay veins nearby. This knowledge, along with additional features such as flexures and fault offsets in the vein structures, will be crucial for interpreting the geological environment and planning the surface drill program. In addition, LiDAR is known for its ability to detect subtle and sometimes buried features such as old mine workings, overgrown pits and trenches that could lead to the discovery of previously unknown mineralization.”
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El Potrero has been in private hands for almost 40 years and has never been systematically explored by modern methods, which creates the opportunity for significant value to be added by Pinnacle when it undertakes operations such as this LiDAR survey.
The project is known to carry high-grade mineralisation, and is in a district which hosts four major mines. Pinnacle’s next major step will be drilling, most likely initially from old underground workings, and this will be when the full extent of the opportunity at El Potrero will really begins to shine through.