Camino Minerals Corp has reported that discovery drilling, consisting of five exploration drill holes, intercepted anomalous copper mineralization over a strike extent of around 6.5 kilometres (km) with grades up to 1.05% copper (Cu) at its Los Chapitos copper project in Peru.
The Vancouver-based copper exploration company said the drill holes also contained “consistent” cobalt mineralization and trace amounts of silver and gold.
“The initial five exploration drill holes show anomalous copper, cobalt, and trace gold and silver with up to 1.05% copper and 0.36 grams per ton (g/t) gold, covering 6.5 km of strike extent on the Diva Trend and only a fraction has been drill tested with very encouraging results in this round of exploration drilling,” said the company.
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Drilling has so far only tested a portion of the copper mineralization along the roughly 8 km Diva Trend. Parallel fault structures along Atajo and Lagunillas are also prospective for copper discoveries within the Los Chapitos claims, said the firm.
“The recent drilling campaign has also identified copper sulphides in the intrusive monzonite that may indicate a sulphide feeder deposit that would account for the widespread copper oxide mineralization at surface,” said the company.
The drilling at Los Chapitos is targeting new copper mineralization in addition to the previously drilled Adriana Zone, as newly permitted areas become available for drilling. The next priority drill target is at the Lourdes outcrop, which shows structurally controlled Manto-style copper oxide mineralization similar to the Adriana and Carlotta zones.
"We appear to be in the right geological sequence of rock for a large discovery to be made that is similar to the nearby large Manto-style Mina Justa deposit. The presence of mineralized intercepts is giving us confidence that we are drilling near a large distal ore body," Camino chief geologist Jose Bassan said in a statement.
Bassan noted that there is a “lithological sequence” similar to the new Mina Justa copper mine that is hosted in the “same Chocolate Formation as Los Chapitos."
The company explained that the mineralization encountered in the recent drilling campaign was intercepted in volcanic andesites known as the Chocolate Formation. This is a sequence of volcanic rocks that extend along the coast of Peru and host other significant mining projects. Notably, the Mina Justa copper mine, 100 km north of Los Chapitos, is Peru's newest copper and gold mine with an investment of over $1.6 billion.
Camino believes that Los Chapitos has a “similar alteration assemblage” with hematite, magnetite, epidote, chlorite, feldspar, potassium, and calcite capable of hosting a major deposit like Mina Justa.
Meanwhile, a step-out hole 1 km south of Adriana has extended the mineralization halo in the Katty Zone by 200m, said the company. Drillhole DCH-079, 2.5 km to the south of Adriana, intercepted anomalous copper enriched in secondary sulfide chalcocite, bornite, and covellite with up to 1.05% Cu and 9.32 parts per million (ppm) of silver (Ag).
Camino is selectively drilling new areas that it believes could intercept additional mineralization like the copper oxides at Adriana.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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