Cuoro Resources finds major new copper-gold intersection

Drilling at Santa Elena in Colombia about 140 km northeast of Medellin has returned near surface and high-grade VMS mineralization in the first six diamond drill holes, CuOro Resources (CUA-V) announced this week. Assays are pending for the remaining four holes drilled so far in the junior’s exploration program.

The initial holes were all drilled from a single drill pad about 60 metres north of Santa Elena’s TEM-1 outcrop for a total of 875.5 metres and all six of them intersected significant copper-zinc-gold and silver mineralization, the company reported.

Assay highlights include 40 metres of 2.8% copper including 10 metres of 5.32% copper from DDH-5; 9 metres of 3.14% copper including 1.6 metres of 11.56% copper in DDH-4, and 46.8 metres of 1.76% copper including 29.5 metres of 2.3% copper in DDH-2.

Recent IP ground surveys indicate that the first six holes were drilled on the outer edge of the main conductors.  

A second drill rig is now on site and is expected to start drilling shortly and a third drill is expected to arrive in the coming months.

Robert Sedgemore, CuOro’s president and chief executive, expressed in a statement that to his knowledge, the intercepts are the longest-and with the highest copper grades-yet to be encountered in the country. He also pointed out that the mineralization was close to surface and that the company has identified a number of drill targets from its recent airborne and ground geophysical surveys.

The Santa Elena copper-gold project has massive sulfide mineralization that outcrops at surface and the sheared, fine to medium grained mineralization is largely composed of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pyrite, and has been classified as a Beshi-Type VMS deposit based on its geological and geochemical characteristics.

The Santa Elena project is near the north end of the Antioquia batholiths, in a sequence of Cretaceous marine sediments and basaltic volcanics and is hosted by hornfels, cretaceous sandstone, and argillite of the San Pablo Formation. The San Pablo Formation is in contact with the quartz dioritic Antioquia Batholith immediately to the east of the mineralized outcrops. Disseminated and structurally controlled sulphide mineralization is evident throughout the drill core and exploration tunnel.  

CuOro has the option to acquire a 100% stake in the project by making staged cash payments and fund work program costs.

There is a paved road right up to the property gate and three hydroelectric plants within a 5-km radius of the project.

In April HudBay Minerals (HBM-T, HBM-N) bought 2.45 million units of CuOro at a price of $1 per unit. Each unit consisted of one common share and one-half of one warrant. Each whole warrant entitles HudBay to acquire one share of the company at a price of $1.30 per share for a period of two years.  

At presstime CuOro was trading at $1.80 per share within a 52-week range of 29¢ (Oct. 13 2010) and $2.65 (May 2 2011).