Summo plans public offering

To demonstrate its confidence in several projects in the western U.S., Summo Minerals has announced plans to make a public offering this spring.

The most advanced of its projects is in San Juan Cty., Utah. Known as Lisbon Valley, the property consists of two main deposits: Centennial and Sentinel.

The history of the sandstone-hosted orebody dates back to the late 1800s when high-grade copper was discovered. A number of companies (including Noranda and Kennecott) explored the area in more recent times.

Resource calculations based on drilling to date (of over 700 holes) indicate a minable reserve of 18.7 million tons grading 0.51% copper at Centennial and 4.6 million tons grading 0.38% copper at Sentinel.

The strip-ratio for the two deposits combined is 2-to-1.

“The property still has plenty of exploration potential,” said President Fred Hewett. “The results of last year’s drilling suggest that Centennial is open and continues to the southeast, and possibly to the northwest. Our spring program will test these two strike extensions.”

Hewett is equally optimistic about other portions of the property, including the still-open GTO deposit, south of the more advanced Centennial and Sentinel. Previous work suggests GTO contains more than 1 million tons grading 0.84% copper. Fill-in drilling is planned for spring, the objective being to add 5-6 million tons to reserves.

“We are hopeful we can double reserves on the Lisbon Valley property,” Hewett said.

The company will continue evaluating the heap-leach, solvent extraction-electrowinning potential of the project. “Some metallurgical testing has already been done, most recently by St. Mary Minerals, as part of a pre-feasibility study,” Hewett said. “We believe we will be able to produce cathode copper for US50 cents per lb.”

The latest tests recovered 76% in 40 days, which, the company says, would justify heap leaching of run-of-mine material. More metallurgical test work is planned for this year and a feasibility study is expected by year-end. Meanwhile, Summo plans to explore another sandstone-hosted copper deposit, this one in western Colorado. Drilling is being planned to define reserves at this less-advanced project, which has a history of high-grade copper production.

Both projects are well situated and accessible by road.