IP survey radically expands targets at Eloro's Iska Iska project in Bolivia

I asked ChatGPT to come up with the three key points in yesterday’s Eloro (ELO.T) press release:

1. Expanded Survey Coverage: The press release highlights the completion of an expanded induced polarization/resistivity (IP/Res) survey at the Iska Iska Project in Southwestern Bolivia. The survey now covers most of the project, with east-west lines completed every 200m across and southeast of the Santa Barbara mineral resource. The use of a deep-penetrating array of 50m and offset 100m dipoles allows for a depth of investigation approaching 400m.

2. New Geological Insights: The survey reveals a chargeability anomaly southeastward from the open pit defining the initial mineral resource estimate (MRE). This anomaly extends beyond the open southeastern side of the pit and adds at least an additional 600m of potential strike length to the major mineralized structural corridor. The new target area, not previously drilled, is identified as having strong chargeability, making it a prime target for outlining additional higher-grade polymetallic mineralization.

3. Correlation of Chargeability with Mineralization: The press release emphasizes the correlation between chargeability highs in the survey and peaks in the grade of the polymetallic Ag-Zn-Pb mineralization expressed as silver equivalent. The chargeability anomaly is open along strike and at depth, indicating the potential for further exploration to define the full limits of the mineralized system. The figure provided in the release illustrates the correlation of high-grade mineralized zones with high chargeability, supporting the significance of the findings.

Yup…(But I am not giving up my day job.) Or you could just look at Figure 3 in the release:

Iska Iska was already a very large project with the “starter pit” alone likely to contain upwards of 200 million tons of valuable rock. I write about Eloro a lot and would like to own far more shares than I do.

Today’s release suggests a target which could easily double the size of the mineral endowment at Iska Iska, maybe more. And, yes, it does have to be drill-tested. However, there is no reason to believe the drilling results will be substantially different from the drill results to date.

This is very good news for Eloro. It is also very challenging news. To drill the IP anomaly, even with reconnaissance-level drill spacing, would take a minimum of fifty holes. Then the company would have to decide whether to include those results in an updated MRE. Plus that drilling would need to be funded.

Larsen and his team have kept the share structure of Eloro very, very tight. Fully diluted, ELO only has 90 million shares outstanding. A 10 million dollar raise might well be achieved while keeping that number below 100 million.

The fact is, going into the next phase, past the updated MRE and a PEA, ELO will need a lot more money and expertise. Transforming a successful exploration company into development and eventual mining is a very tough transition.

Realistically, Eloro is going to need a much larger player to step up. No doubt Tom and Peter Marrone are having conversations. No doubt big companies are looking at the Iska Iska results so far, and today’s press release, and thinking about how few world-class discoveries there are out there.

I note that the Chinese have largely discounted the Bolivia country risk with large investments in the country’s lithium resources and, interestingly, a 1.5 billion dollar commitment to building two zinc processing facilities.

Iska Iska has 4 million tons of zinc in situ.

I suspect that the next few months are going to be very interesting for Eloro and its shareholders.

[I will have an interview with Tom Larsen up at Motherlodetv.net in the next couple of days. I think he is pretty happy with the results so far.]

[Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. I am not an investment professional. I am down about 30% at the moment. I will write about companies that I hold. I will disclose any holdings. Do your own due diligence. Do it hard. Call the CEO.

I currently hold shares in ELO.T and while I have no plans to sell anytime soon, I reserve the right to take profits as they arise.]