Northern Peru Copper drills hot hole at Galeno (January 02, 2006)

Vancouver — Continuing a trend of pulling long mineralized intersections, Northern Peru Copper (NOC-T, NPUCF-O) delivered its best hole yet from the Galeno project, located about 600 km north of Lima, Peru.

Hole GND-05-16, a northerly step-out from the high-grade core, returned 306 metres (from surface) grading 0.91% copper, 0.09 gram gold per tonne and 0.011% molybdenum (a 1.03% copper equivalent). A higher-grade section within the hole ran 1% copper, 0.1 gram gold and 0.012% molybdenum (1.13% copper equivalent) over 248 metres.

The 15,000-metre, phase-2 drilling program is expanding copper mineralization beyond the central Galeno area to the north, south and east. Core holes continue to intersect consistently mineralized material, demonstrating strong continuity in the system.

Newmont Mining (NMC-T, NEM-N) conducted the first exploration work on the property in the early 1990s through a joint venture with Compaia de Minas Buenaventura (BVN-N). The major conducted limited surface exploration and geophysics work followed by a 4-hole drill program before dropping the property in 1997 due to a predominance of copper mineralization over gold.

In mid-1997, Aussie-based North Limited, now part of Rio Tinto (RTP-N), optioned the project and conducted expanded surface exploration, geophysics and completed a more extensive drilling effort. Based on its work, North developed an inferred resource at Galeno (classified as historic and pre-National Instrument 43-101) of 486 million tonnes grading 0.57% copper and 0.14 gram gold, using a 0.4% copper cutoff grade. The company modelled a potential open-pit scenario, initially producing 16 million tonnes of copper-gold ore annually, then ramping up to 32 million tonnes per year. A 360-km pipeline was envisioned to transport the conventional flotation concentrates to the port of Salaverry. However, in the end, Galeno fell shy of North’s requirements for development due to its tonnage and grade, and concerns over metal prices and power supplies.

Porphyry-style copper-gold-molybdenum mineralization at Galeno is hosted in dacitic intrusives and Lower Cretaceous rocks thrust over an Upper Cretaceous sequence. Mineralization enrichment, typically consisting of covellite and chalcocite, tends to be associated with the phyllic alteration.

With two rigs on the project, Northern Peru Copper continues its drill program at Galeno with an eye on boosting the size of the deposit and testing peripheral targets.