Intrepid Metals Corp (TSX-V:INTR, OTCQB:IMTCF) is seeing shallow high-grade copper and gold mineralization from its drilling program at the Corral Copper Property in Arizona.
The company recently revealed positive results from the Ringo Zone, indicating strong potential for economic mineral deposits due to shallow copper grades and significant gold findings. Additionally, the Tombstone South project shows promising exploration targets, analogous to the Taylor deposit owned by Australian mining giant South32 Ltd (LSE:S32, ASX:S32, OTC:SHTLF, JSE:S32).
In this interview with Proactive, CEO Ken Brophy delved deeper into the results and what they could mean for the future of Intrepid’s strategy in Arizona.
Proactive: Could you provide us with an overview of Intrepid's journey, particularly concerning the Corral Copper Project?
Ken Brophy: Absolutely. Over the past year, we've made significant strides, especially with our Corral Copper project. What makes Corral unique is its well-known history of exploration and small-scale mining dating back to the early 1900s. However, there was a lot of fragmented land ownership, so it took us about 18 months to consolidate all of that.
We finally completed the last key acquisition within this three-kilometer trend of known mineralization last fall. With that completed, we went to the market and successfully raised $6.6 million at the start of January. We began drilling in February, and we are still drilling to date.
Your recent drill results have been generating buzz. Can you elaborate on the significance of these findings, particularly in the Ringo Zone?
A few things stand out to us from these drill results, which are from our first drill program in this area. We have a three-kilometer trend, and this entire trend is on private lands. We have patent mining claims and additional surface rights over the Ringo Zone itself. What stands out is how shallow and high-grade much of this mineralization is.
For example, our initial news a few weeks ago reported 193 meters of 0.68% copper starting at 27 meters. Within those 193 meters, we had another 105 meters of 1.17% copper and 0.55 grams per ton of gold. We consider copper equivalency due to the high value of the gold, making that 105 meters 1.42% copper equivalent.
Last week, we reported nearly 100 meters of 0.54% copper, or 0.68% copper equivalency, from hole 13. Hole 16 was particularly exciting with 198 meters of 0.56% copper, or 0.68% copper equivalency, starting at just 10 meters, including 72 meters of 1.28% copper. This shallow, high-grade copper is a unique element of our story, and it's all on private lands.
We have two holes left to drill. This first phase of the drill program focused on firming up the three-kilometer trend because we had the advantage of historical data and drill logs. This has validated the importance and high-grade nature of the trend. By the time we're done, we will have close to 5,000 meters drilled. We'll take all that information, including additional mapping and historic geophysical data, to piece it together and plan for a bigger drill program in the fall of this year.
Looking ahead, what are Intrepid's plans for expansion and further exploration?
Corral Copper is only about 35 km from our Tombstone South project, which is an exciting opportunity that we plan to drill later this year because it's a geological analog to the Taylor deposit or the Hermosa deposit that South32 bought for $1.3 billion in 2018.
Previous drilling on this project intersected some high-grade silver veins, but none of the drilling tested the depth where larger CRD-style mineralized systems are typically found. We conducted a large dipole IP survey and identified a large, strong chargeability anomaly. What's exciting is its location in the upper strata, the limestone units where these larger CRD-type targets are usually found. At this stage, we have many indicators of higher-grade, shallow silver-lead-zinc mineralization, and we believe we've identified the large source that we look forward to drilling later this year.