Marimaca Copper Corp. announced the completion of the infrastructure condemnation drilling program. The program was designed to test and confirm the planned site layout to be incorporated into the Company’s ongoing permitting and Definitive Feasibility Study (“DFS”) workstreams. Drilling targeted key areas defined for planned site infrastructure to confirm absence of mineralization and suitability for development.
Highlights
Hayden Locke, President and CEO, commented:
“With condemnation complete, we are confident in locking in our plant and infrastructure locations for both permitting and the Definitive Feasibility Study. We have used the information from this program for the dual purpose of confirming ground conditions to underpin expected civil earthworks estimation. This confirms that the site has good ground conditions and civil earthwork is as expected in previous studies.
“The discovery of a new mineralized trend identified in the San Lorenzo area will be evaluated further to determine next steps, but it appears the core zone extends to the south away from the project’s infrastructure and offers an interesting target for shallow oxide mineralization. Further afield, we have completed a review of our broader exploration package and have identified several areas with exciting potential. We are finalizing 2024 exploration plans particularly for the Sierra de Medina project and will update as new developments occur.
“We continue to progress the permitting and DFS workstreams to our planned timelines, in partnership with Ausenco, with target delivery dates of the middle and end of the year respectively.”
The condemnation program totaled 3,350m across 21 drill holes completed over two sectors, east and west of the MOD. The west sector targeted the areas planned for the waste dump and run-of-mine leach facilities, while the east sector covered areas planned for the installation of the crushing, SX-EW, heap leaching, ripios dumps and office areas. A high-resolution mag-drone survey was completed in advance of the drilling program to identify priority areas (within the planned infrastructure zones) for drilling.
Based on results from the program, the entirety of the west sector can proceed with planned DFS design due to lack of prospective mineralization. The zone corresponds to the outermost western halo of Marimaca’s IOCG alteration-mineralization system and is considered low potential for hosting mineralized zones of sufficient scale. A total of 8 drill holes totaling 1,200m were completed in the western sector.
In the eastern sector, areas planned for permanent site infrastructure (SX-EW plant, crushing facility, offices, heap leach pads) can proceed as defined. In the central zone of the Ripios 1 area, known as San Lorenzo, three holes (SLR 01, 13 and 08) intersected mineralized copper oxides along a NNE structural corridor identified in surface mapping and magnetic surveying. Mineralization appears to be hosted by veins and veinlets controlled by the contact regions of dykes and host monzodiorite. The nature of the lithology, alteration and mineralization assemblages resembles an IOCG system similar to that of the MOD. No prior drilling has been completed in this area. As such, further exploration work will be planned for the San Lorenzo zone during detailed engineering, however there is sufficient expected operation flexibility with the availability of other planned ripios areas to continue with development as planned.
Miningreporters.com is a media outlet affiliated with Reporte Minero.
Powered by Global Channel
175395