La Verde produces long porphyry hits

VANCOUVER — Catalyst Copper’s (CCY-V) first drill program at the La Verde project in Michoacan state, Mexico, is returning long copper-gold intercepts from two porphyry zones outlined by previous explorers.

Catalyst is set to acquire a majority interest in La Verde from Teck Resources (TCK. B-T, TCK-N). Pursuant to an agreement from late 2009, Catalyst can earn 60% of the project by paying $6 million in cash and spending $10 million on exploration before the end of 2012.

The cash payment has been made and now Catalyst is working on the exploration requirement. In June the company kicked off a 10,000-metre drill program and results from the first five holes are now out. In four of five holes, the mineralized zone started less than 20 metres below surface.

The longest hit came from hole 21, which cut 634.8 metres grading 0.42% copper from 19 metres depth. Near the bottom of the hole the hit included 130 metres carrying 0.91% copper. Hole 21 tested the West Hill area. Hole 19 was also collared in the West Hill area and it returned 550 metres grading 0.41% copper, starting 91 metres downhole and including 20 metres of 1.16% copper.

In the East Hill area, hole 12 cut 239.8 metres of 0.5% copper and 0.05 gram gold per tonne, starting 13 metres downhole. Similarly, hole 14 hit 156 metres of 0.36% copper and 0.17 gram gold from 9 metres depth, while hole 76 intercepted 94 metres carrying 0.39% copper and 0.09 gram gold, starting at surface.

La Verde is in west-central Mexico, in an area of Michoacan known as Neuva Italia. Porphyry mineralization at La Verde is hosted in a granodiorite-quartz monzonite intrusive complex called the Sierra del Marques complex. Over the last 40 years, several companies have spent millions of dollars exploring the property, including geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys as well as 80,000 metres of drilling.

This previous work identified two large mineralized zones, known as East and West Hill. The East Hill zone comprises four mineralized intrusive phases that conform to a typical porphyry system. At West Hill, a series of east-west striking chalcopyrite-and bornite-rich veins are focused within an elliptical body.

Catalyst believes the presence of two zones and the abundance of mineralized intrusive breccias, alteration styles, and sulphide mineral assemblages indicate the Sierra del Marques complex may be the upper portion of a much larger porphyry system.

As part of tracking the rest of the system, at least near surface, Catalyst’s other major focus at La Verde has been completing an induced polarization (IP) survey. To date IP anomalies at La Verde have correlated well with copper mineralization; the East and West Hill zones show up well on IP surveys. Now the company has another IP target to test, located roughly 4 km south of the current deposit that strikes for 2 km and stretches across 400 metres width. Catalyst plans to drill the new IP target before the end of the year.

The company is also looking to define a compliant resource, as the last resource at La Verde came in 1972. That historic estimate pegged resources at 72.6 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper. Catalyst’s current drill program is informing a new resource calculation via twinning and infill, while also stepping out to probe extensions of the known zones.

Catalyst has more than $5 million in the bank, which will fund it through its current program. Those funds came from a February private placement in which Catalyst sold 100 million shares at 10.5¢ each for proceeds of $9.9 million.

Investors were nonplussed by the La Verde results, leaving Catalyst’s share price down half a cent at 14.5¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 5¢-26¢ and 210 million shares outstanding.