Boleo returns copper-cobalt values

Still more impressive copper-cobalt values are reported from a drill program at the Boleo project in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

International Curator Resources (TSE), which has an option to acquire the property, is especially encouraged by two holes on the eastern edge of the Saturno drill-indicated resource.

Hole 47 intersected 6.08 metres grading 0.17% copper and 0.066% cobalt, while hole 48 intersected 6.19 metres grading 0.4% copper and 0.071% cobalt, both in the No. 3 bed and hangingwall. Hole 48 also encountered an intermediate bed 3.5 metres above the hangingwall, returning 0.35 metres grading 0.38% copper and 0.38% cobalt.

Drilling in the Mercurio-Apolo area (also in the No. 3 bed) returned grades similar to those that were used for underground resource calculations (averaging greater than 2% copper and 0.06% cobalt). Widths are about 30% greater and consistent intersections of the overlying No. 2 bed have prompted Curator to give greater consideration to the area’s open-pit potential. The No. 2 bed, which occurs about 40 metres above the No. 3 bed in the area, returned an average intersection of about 2 metres grading 0.39% copper, 0.061% cobalt and 0.97% zinc.

Additional results from 400-metre grid drilling in the Saturno Mercurio-Apolo area are pending.

Curator can acquire the property by means of any of several options, the cheapest of which involves staged payments of US$960,000 for 10% plus a further payment of US$16 million by Aug. 1, 1995. The vendor retains a scaled net profits interest, increasing from 3% in the first three years of production to 9% in the fourth, fifth and sixth years, and 18% thereafter. Boleo contains several flat-lying, sediment-hosted beds of copper-cobalt mineralization which extend for considerable distances. The topography of the area varies as a result of erosional features, suggesting the property has both underground and open-pit potential.

The drill-indicated and inferred open-pit resource is estimated at 91.5 million tons grading 0.7% copper and 0.08% cobalt. An underground geological resource is believed to contain 49.4 million tons grading 2.67% copper and 0.082% cobalt.

About 5 km northwest of Saturno on the company’s property boundary, Copperstone Resources (VSE) reported No. 3 bed intersections of 3.8 metres grading 0.82% copper and 0.083% cobalt in hole 1, and 2.35 metres grading 2.32% copper and 0.084% cobalt in hole 2, at depths of about 55 metres. Copperstone is earning an 80% interest in the property from Island-Arc Resources (VSE), and assay results from two more holes are pending.