Latin America and Asia Pacific
Over the last year, our teams have generated and are testing targets across our existing landholdings while pushing into new frontiers in the Guiana Shield, Peru and Argentina.
In the Dominican Republic, we continue to explore the larger area around our Pueblo Viejo mine. A new structural model led to the recognition of different corridors of prospectivity, notably including the Zambrana corridor, where our work continues to confirm the potential for a significant blind target at Arroyo del Rey. Elsewhere in the Dominican Republic, we have started to assess our permits in two of the most prospective mineral districts.
We have been very active across the El Indio Belt in Chile and Argentina, where we have drilled nine different targets during the past year. Notably, we have been able to identify and extend known mineralization to the east of Lama, discovered gold mineralization at Cerro Pelado at Veladero and identified several porphyry targets.
At Alturas - Del Carmen, as the delineation of the main deposit continues, exploration confirmed the presence of both high-sulphidation and porphyry mineralization at Carmen Norte, providing opportunity to add value to the project.
In the mining-friendly Salta Province of northern Argentina, we have made significant progress on our exploration work at El Quevar, a prospective property which has been underexplored for its gold potential. Three targets have advanced and will be drilled in 2022.
In Peru, our generative work has identified new, early-stage opportunities across the country. Two areas with the potential to deliver a large deposit were identified close to the Pierina mine.
In Southern Peru, we have secured the ground over the Ichuraya project that is emerging as the next significant target for gold exploration in the district. We also continue our work to get drilling approval for the Cerro Amarillo and Tumaruma projects.
In the Guiana Shield, we have made the leap from generative activities to consolidating a meaningful land package covering 85,000ha via multiple exploration option agreements and Barrick applications. The prospective Makapa project land package is situated along a fertile segment of a major structural corridor which extends the length of the Guiana Shield and has a close association with major gold deposits discovered to date. The area has seen little to no prospecting or exploration due to the presence of post mineral sand cover which is masking the underlying potential. The presence of nearby alluvial workings and elevated gold geochemistry at surface however, hints at the hidden mineral potential. We will be applying our knowledge and skills from our successful exploration in West Africa, which has similar geology, to expedite the exploration and expected discoveries in this belt.
The Japan Gold Alliance was formed in early 2020 and since then, the portfolio has grown by 42% to 29 projects covering 203,000ha. The majority of the portfolio has been geochemically screened, however due to Covid-19 related restrictions, the initial two-year evaluation period has been extended to August 31, 2022 to facilitate completion of the first pass screening phase. Multiple geochemical anomalies have been defined across the portfolio, including over 40 gold anomalies which require greater geological context to rank and rate target areas. Upon completion of the initial evaluation phase this coming August, properties will be ranked and either prioritized for more detailed investigations or removal from the alliance.