(Alliance News) - Great Southern Copper PLC on Tuesday said a regional stream sediment survey at the Especularita project in Chile defined multiple targets for follow-up.

The Chile-focused copper-gold exploration company said it received final assay results for the programme which began in February and was designed to provide broad-scale gold, base metal and trace element geochemistry across the Especularita project area.

Great Southern Copper said numerous multi-element zonation patterns were defined and evident "project-wide" from 658 samples collected from second and third order stream catchments. From this, it identified targets for follow-up prospect-scale copper-gold exploration.

Specifically, Great Southern Copper said porphyry, high-sulphidation epithermal and intrusive-related metal signatures and zonation patterns were identified for follow-up exploration programmes.

The company said it completed its first drone-magnetic survey at Especularita, which it said was designed to provide "detailed coverage" of its drill-ready targets at Teresita and Victoria, alongside regional information for target generation.

Great Southern Copper said the survey comprised 482 flight lines at a 50 metre line-spacing for a total of 1,480 line kilometres surveyed. Over a selected area at the Abundante mine prospect, Great Southern Copper opted to survey at 25 metre spaced line intervals.

Meanwhile, prospect-scale exploration at Especularita is continuing at the Victoria and Aurelia prospects, Great Southern Copper said, where it is undertaking mapping and soil sampling activities.

Great Southern Copper added that planning and permitting for scout drilling programmes at the Teresita and Abundante prospects is also in progress.

Looking ahead, it said the stream sediment assay data "outlines a significant number of anomalies and metal-zonation patterns that require follow-up exploration".

Therefore, all anomalies will be field checked with mapping and sampling programmes, Great Southern Copper said, to assess their potential as exploration prospects and targets.

"This comprehensive stream sediment survey at Especularita has been very effective, and together with other regional datasets, is helping the company complete reconnaissance-scale exploration across its large project footprint," said Great Southern Copper Chief Executive Officer Sam Garrett.

"Multi-element zonation patterns identified in the data are consistent with the geochemical signatures for porphyry [copper], epithermal [gold], and intrusive-related [copper-gold] types of mineralisation. Using these results, the company will now commence a regional follow-up mapping and sampling campaign with the aim of delineating prospect-scale targets for scout drilling."

Garrett continued: "It is pleasing to see the continued progress and encouraging results at Especularita and we look forward to updating the market further in due course."

Shares in Great Southern Copper last traded at 3.14 pence each in London on Monday afternoon. The stock has more than doubled since late July, peaking at 3.75p at the end of August.

By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News reporter

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