Meridian Mining advances Cabacal copper project in Brazil toward updated resource 

Meridian Mining (TSXV: MNO; US-OTC: MRRDF) has announced new results from its 25,000-metre drill program at its Cabacal copper-gold project at Mato Grosso in west-central Brazil as it works to update the resource later this year. 

Highlights from the drill results included 11.9 metres grading 1.3% copper, 0.4 gram gold per tonne, 8.9 grams silver per tonne starting from 61.8 meters in drillhole CD-097 and 11.5 meters grading 1% copper, 0.4 gram gold per tonne, 3.9 grams silver per tonne, starting from 80.6 meters in drillhole CD-091.  

“The results for the metallurgical program continue to confirm strong zones of copper-gold mineralization,” James McLucas, a Meridian Mining spokesperson told The Northern Miner. “The recognition of the visible gold intersections is significant in showing a much broader envelope of mineralization extending far beyond the limits of the historical mine workings.” 

The project was discovered in 1983 by BP Minerals and later acquired by Rio Tinto in 1989. A past-producing underground mine at the project mined 869,279 tonnes grading 5 grams gold per tonne and 0.82% copper over four years up to 1991.    

In 2020, Meridian entered into an option agreement with a group of private Brazilian companies that allows them to acquire 100% of the property for a total consideration of US$8.8 million and 4.5 million Meridian shares. The company is currently in the process of fulfilling the third of seven instalments outlined in the agreement. 

“The Cabacal project is unique in the junior markets as a single company controls the dominant position with a copper-gold VMS belt that has only seen limited historical development of two selective high-grade underground operations,” said McLucas, adding that the vast amount of available historic data produced by a major mining company was what first attracted the management to the project. 

The property hosts a historic resource of 21.7 million tonnes grading 0.6% copper and 0.6 gram gold per tonne, which was completed by a previous owner in 2009. Meridian is in the process of completing a further 11,000 metres of drilling to announce an updated resource estimate.  

The company believes that Cabacal has the potential to become a “low capex, low cost open pit operation.”

“As we show the results of the belt scale potential and standalone economics of the Cabacal project to the market, we would expect there to be interest from larger capitalization mid-tier mining companies. However the focus for the company will remain on advancing Cabacal to its maximum potential and into production,” said McLucas. 

Eariler this month, the company announced drill results from the same project, including highlights of 19.9 metres grading 1.8% copper, 6 grams gold per tonne and 7.7 grams silver starting from 66.5 metres in drillhole CD-094; as well as3.6 metres grading 2.1% copper, 0.6 gram gold per tonne and 7.8 grams silver starting from 47.3 metres in drillhole CD-090.  

At presstime in Toronto, Meridian Mining was trading at $1 per share, up 9¢ or 9.9%, within a 52-week trading range of 34¢ and $1.34. The company has 147.6 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of $147.6 million.