El Indio Belt
Location and Geology
The El Indio-Pascua belt spans the Argentina-Chile border along the crest of the Andean Cordillera. The belt hosts world-class deposits with various mineralization styles, including El Indio, Veladero, Alturas, Del Carmen, and Rio del Medio mines.
The basement to the El Indio belt is composed of the Permian to Triassic Choiyoi Group in Argentina, consisting of felsic flows, tuffs, and volcaniclastic rocks.
Gold and silver at HS epithermal deposits have been inferred to be primarily hosted in polymictic breccias of the Miocene related to Vacas Heladas.
The formation is characterized by andesitic to dacitic phreatomagmatic rocks, dome complexes, and subvolcanic intrusions.
Exploration Projects
Jagüelito Project
Austral Gold has an earn-in agreement with Mexplort Exploraciones SA to acquire up to 50% of the Jagüelito Project. .
Jagüelito is an HS epithermal deposit related to a Miocene volcanism hosted in the Permo-Triassic basement. Its silver and gold mineralization are connected to a hydrothermal system controlled by northwest-oriented faults associated with a classic dome-diatreme cluster system.
The exploratory work started in the 1990s; to date, more than 150 holes have been drilled, totalling 30 km.