Fitzroy CEO Merlin Marr-Johnson, left, at the Buen Retiro site in Chile with COO Gilberto Schubert. Credit: Fitzroy Minerals
Fitzroy Minerals (TSXV: FTZ) says drilling at its Buen Retiro project in northern Chile is revealing a major copper system as the company prepares to release an initial resource.
Highlight hole BRT-DDH045 cut 384 metres grading 0.22% copper from 4 metres depth, including 94 metres at 0.33% copper and 26 metres grading 0.45% copper. Buen Retiro is near the city of Copiapó, which is about 1,000 km north of the capital Santiago.
“Drill hole 45 intersected copper in two distinct mineralizing styles on a large scale in the North area of the Buen Retiro property,” Fitzroy CEO Merlin Marr-Johnson said in a release. “In an industry with decreasing discovery rates Fitzroy aims to leverage potential future cash flow from the proposed Buen Retiro heap leach copper operation to fund the continued exploration for major copper deposits in Chile with minimal dilution.”
Fitzroy is conducting infill drilling for an initial resource ahead of a planned prefeasibility study, though it didn’t specify a timeline.
The results at Buen Retiro, near the past-producing Manto Negro mine, point to the project’s potential in the Punta del Cobre copper belt, one of the world’s most important iron oxide copper-gold areas. It hosts a cluster of large, long-life copper operations led by Lundin Mining’s (TSX: LUN) Candelaria copper-gold mine which produced 145,000 tonnes of copper last year.
Candelaria-style system
Fitzroy shares gained 1% to C$0.41 apiece on Monday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at C$114.7 million ($83.6 million).
Other highlights from hole BRT-DDH045 comprise 44 metres grading 0.32% copper from 80 metres depth, 13 metres at 0.4% copper and 9 metres grading 0.69% copper.
The first 100 metres of the hole intersected a stockwork zone with minor breccias from the start of fresh rock at four metres, with the hole then transitioning into a Candelaria-style stratiform system for another 284 metres, Fitzroy said. Copper mineralization in chalcopyrite was very consistent throughout the hole.
Hole BRT-DDH044 cut across low-grade intersections and the best interval was 10 metres at 0.3% copper from 142 metres depth.
The brownfield Buen Retiro site is just 4 km from the Pan-American Highway and power infrastructure and 40 km east of the Pacific coast.
Chilean miner Pucobre operated the Manto Negro copper oxide mine at the site from 2005 to 2009, when it produced 34.4 million lb. copper.
