Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) has started drilling a 24 hole drilling program totalling 2,800 metres at its Cascada copper prospect of the Promontorio copper-gold-silver project in Chihuahua, Mexico.

This follows up on an intercept of 70 metres at 2.7% copper equivalent from 41.9 metres from the last drilling program.

Mapping and sampling of surface exposures and historical underground mine workings has also provided the company with additional information of the geology and controls on mineralisation in the Cascada area.

Numerous outcrops of vuggy silica were channel sampled with the majority returning elevated gold grades over 1 gram per tonne gold up to a maximum of 9.8g/t gold.

Azure believes this widespread gold anomalism at surface could be a pathfinder representing copper mineralisation at depth.

Promontorio is a high-sulphidation, epithermal system where base and precious metal mineralisation is contained in veins of massive and semi-massive sulphides. Sulphide mineralisation is predominantly enargite (a copper-arsenic sulphide) and pyrite, with minor chalcocite and chalcopyrite (copper sulphides).

It has a Resource of 840,000 tonnes at 2.5% copper, 1.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 56g/t silver, or 4.1% copper equivalent.