A second look at 85 holes drilled by
Denver-based mining engineering firm Chlumsky, Armbrust & Meyer peg total inferred resources at 209.7 million tonnes running 0.46% copper, including 120.5 million tonnes of secondary copper sulphides and oxides grading 0.49% copper. Antares says the material is amenable to processing via solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW). Another 89.2 million tonnes of primary copper sulphides grade 0.43% copper, and would be subject to flotation/concentrate processing.
The estimates are based on 7,900 metres of reverse-circulation drilling and 3,400 metres of core drilling, with the holes spaced an average of 200 metres apart. The holes were sunk to an average depth of 134 metres, with only 10 exceeding 200 metres. A cutoff grade of 0.3% copper was employed.
The secondary and primary resources remain open laterally, with the primary copper sulphides open at depth. The property is also home to several other untested targets.
“We are excited to report an initial resource estimate of over one billion pounds of leachable copper at Haquira, a new copper discovery immediately adjacent to Xstrata’s Las Bambas copper-gold project,” said Antares president John Black in a statement.
The shallow copper-oxide and secondary copper-sulphide mineralization could potentially be targeted by a low-strip, low-cost SX-EW operation, particularly given synergies with
Antares plans drilling aimed at delineating new resources and obtaining bulk samples for metallurgical testing during the balance of the year.
The company can acquire the project by paying Phelps US$15 million over five years. If the project advances to the feasibility stage, Antares will have to fork over US1 for every pound of copper included in the resource in excess of 2.2 billion lbs.
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