Andean Silver (ASX: ASL) has commenced a regional exploration campaign comprising extensive geophysics and target generation at its Cerro Bayo silver-gold project in Chile.

The company has contracted SR Geophysics to complete the work over the next six months across the project’s 300 square kilometres of granted tenure.

It will be the largest campaign of its kind ever conducted at the project and the first in over 15 years to use modern techniques.

Geophysics survey

A geophysics survey will cover key structural corridors within the Cerro Bayo district to the top of the epithermal system at Sinter Hill, situated at the southern limits of Andean’s tenure.

It aims to confirm depth extensions of known resources at the Raul and Marcela deposits while also refining structural controls around high-potential zones at Droughtmaster and Mallines.

The results will be integrated with mapping and surface geochemistry to identify large-scale resistive structures to 300 metres depth and potentially expand the project’s epithermal low-sulphidation silver-gold package.

‘Boots on the ground’

Chief executive officer Tim Laneyrie said the company was keen to get “boots on the ground” for the campaign.

“The start of this extensive and targeted geophysical survey marks the first large-scale regional targeting program over the Cerro Bayo tenure in more than a decade,” he said.

“It is the first step in our goal to establish large new prospects outside the main mine complexes and will help us to see under areas of cover that have not been historically explored.”

The new areas will be progressively evaluated and brought into a broader geological model through re-sampling of the main lode areas and new target corridors.

Mineral systems review

Mr Laneyrie said a recent review of the Cerro Bayo and Laguna Verde mineral systems had significantly enhanced the company’s understanding of the project’s potential.

The review highlighted a second intermediate-sulphidation mineralisation event that could add valuable grade and scale to targets across the project area.

Initial work showed a large northeast-to-southwest trending corridor with multiple high-grade polymetallic intercepts, which have not been investigated historically due to Andean’s primary silver-gold focus.

It also highlighted secondary polymetallic mineralisation that has the potential to boost the prospectivity of the main ore domains within the existing resource.