Chakana Copper Corp. (TSX-V:PERU, OTCQB:CHKKF) reported “excellent grades” in results from the first two drill holes in the southern half of its Soledad project in Peru, where it has also just drilled two more holes.
Of the two exploration holes drilled at the Estremadoyro breccia pipe, the company said Hole SDH24-284 intercepted 17.7 meters at 0.55 grammes of gold per tonne (g/t), 0.77% copper, and 39.7 g/t silver (1.48% copper-equivalent); while Hole SDH24-285 intercepted 23.0 meters at 0.61 g/t gold, 1.02% copper, and 26.1 g/t silver (1.65% copper-equivalent).
After previous drilling on seven breccia pipes on the north half of the project, the Vancouver-based company received an expanded drill permit and started drilling in the southern half last month to explore the Estremadoyro breccia pipe and the Mega-Gold porphyry target area, where two holes have been drilled and a third is in progress.
“We are excited to see excellent grades at Estremadoyro, comparable to the grade of our published resource from 2022. We are also very encouraged to see bornite mineralization and mineralization extending into the wall rock away from the breccia contact,” said Chakana Copper president and CEO David Kelley.
“We know from our drilling that the breccia pipes are vertically extensive so these grades certainly support additional drilling in the future to determine what tonnage potential the Estremadoyro breccia may have.”
The company also said the Estremadoyro breccia has the first identified occurrence of bornite at the site, which has a copper content of 63.3% compared to Chalcopyrite with 34.6%, while a low-grade copper halo “indicates the potential for a greater volume of mineralization surrounding the breccia pipe at depth”.
Drilling at Mega-Gold, which covers a 2.5 sq km area, is “progressing well with extensive alteration identified in the drilling to date”, Kelley said.
“Importantly, we have confirmed that the strong induced polarization chargeability response is related to sulfides and chalcopyrite-molybdenite mineralization has been identified in all three holes thus far.”