Metallic unveils Colorado copper resource, shares rally
Metallic Minerals Corp. (MMG-TSXV, MMNGF-USOTC) shares rallied Tuesday after the company announced a NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate for its La Plata copper project in Colorado.
The shares jumped 9.7% or $0.035 to 39.5 cents in light trading and now trade in a 52-week range of 68 cents and 32 cents.
The road accessible La Plata project covers 33 square kilometres, approximately 26 kilometres northwest of Durango, Colorado.
Tuesday’s news release focuses on the Allard copper-silver- porphyry deposit, which is estimated to host an inferred mineral resource of 889 million pounds of copper and 14.9 million ounces of silver in a constrained model with 115.7 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.39% copper equivalent (CuEq) (0.35% copper and 4.02 g/t silver) based on a 0.25% CuEq cut-off.
The resource estimate was completed by SGS Geological Services and is based on 56 diamond core drill holes, covering 15,200 metres completed by Rio Tinto Plc [RIO-NYSE], Freeport-McMoran Inc. [FCX-NYSE] and others, along with new drilling and underground sampling by Metallic Minerals.
Exploration by Rio Tinto and Freeport-McMoran in the 1950s and 1970s focused on bulk tonnage disseminated and stockwork porphyry copper-silver-gold mineralization.
Metallic acquired the project in 2019. Exploration activities by Metallic in 2020 and 2021 included 1,980 metres of core drilling, resampling of historical drill core, underground sampling from the Allard deposit, airborne and ground-based geophysics and surface sampling across the broader property.
The company said the Allard deposit remains open to significant expansion within the resource area. In addition, the greater La Plata silver-gold-copper project remains underexplored and open to new discoveries of both additional copper-porphyry centres as well as high-grade epithermal silver and gold systems.
Metallic said it is planning a robust campaign of follow-up drilling and geophysical surveys for the project this year. The objective is to expand the 2022 resource and advance new targets.
“This inaugural resource is a major milestone for Metallic Minerals and the La Plata project and puts us on the map in the U.S. with a new resource containing important base and precious metals, that fall under the U.S. government’s critical minerals strategy, in a past-producing yet underexplored district in the southwestern U.S.,” said Metallic President Scott Petsel.
“With 15 million ounces of silver and nearly a billion pounds of copper, at recent metal prices of over US$25 per ounce silver and US$4.50 a pound copper, the company has demonstrated the exceptional value opportunity of the La Plata project for Metallic shareholders.”
A member of the Vancouver-based Metallic Group of companies, Metallic Minerals has a portfolio that also includes the La Plata project, as well as royalty assets in the Yukon’s historic Klondike gold district.
Metallic’s flagship Keno Silver Project covers 166 square kilometres and is located in the historic Keno Hill Silver District, an area that has produced over 200 million ounces of silver.