Our Assets
Nueva Esperanza
Development Project
Chile
Nueva Esperanza is 100% owned by Kingsgate and is the seventh largest undeveloped silver deposit in the world.
Nueva Esperanza has a Mineral Resource of 0.49 million ounces of gold and 83.4 million ounces of silver and Ore Reserves of 0.3 million ounces of gold and 47.8 million ounces of silver*.
Nueva Esperanza is a prospective pre-feasibility stage gold and silver project comprising several well-defined deposits (Arqueros, Chimberos and Teterita) located in a high sulphidation epithermal system, and a number of prospective exploration targets. The project has key infrastructure and approvals in place including water rights secured until 2039.
Location
Nueva Esperanza is located in the prolific Maricunga Belt in the Atacama Region of Northern Chile, 140km North-East of the city of Copiapo, a regional mining centre. Gold Fields’ Salares Norte and Kinross’ La Coipa are located within the same section of the Maricunga Belt.
History
Kingsgate acquired the Arqueros deposit in 2009, with the subsequent acquisition of the Chimberos and Teterita (Esperanza) deposits in 2011 and consolidated the tenements into the Nueva Esperanza Project.
Arqueros was previously mined on a limited scale by underground methods, and Chimberos was mined as an open pit. Over 30 million ounces of silver were recovered from Chimberos deposit over a 13 month period in 1998/99.
During the 2014-15 exploration program, the Chimberos Gold deposit was discovered to the west of the current Chimberos pit, with further high potential geochemical targets identified following initial results at Boulder, Rifle and Carachitas Central.
While there has been limited activity at Nueva Esperanza project since 2016, in 2024 Kingsgate announced that the company is currently exploring all possible options to unlock value of the project for shareholders, including a separate listing. Concurrently, historical data is being revisited to plan a targeted exploration program, including investigating the project’s gold endowment.
Geology
The mineralised silver and gold deposits are located within the northern sector of the Maricunga gold belt which hosts high sulphidation epithermal and porphyry gold systems. Mineralisation is hosted within Tertiary-aged volcanic units in the case of Arqueros and Teterita, and Paleozoic sediments for Chimberos. The alteration and mineralisation are Miocene in age and associated with hydrothermal activity of the Cerro Bravo paleovolcano.
Mineralisation comprises two main components. These are silver-rich horizontal units called “mantos” and a series of cross-cutting gold-rich vertical units associated with silicified ledges and breccias. The mantos silver mineralisation is hosted by vuggy silica within leached dacitic lapilli tuffs. It occurs at Arqueros and Teterita where the mineralising process has replaced horizontal porous tuffs. At Chimberos, silver mineralisation is hosted in vuggy silica hydrothermal breccias superimposed on folded Paleozoic sediments
The vertical gold-rich mineralisation, also characterised by vuggy silica, is well-developed at Arqueros and Chimberos in silica ledges and hydrothermal breccias. The ledges have been interpreted as feeders for mineralising fluids indicating strong structural controls and understanding these has been instrumental in discovering additional high-grade gold mineralisation in the project area.
* Refer to the Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves page on this website for detailed tonnage, grade and metal content categorised by confidence classification.
