Los Andes drills 1% CuEq over 152 metres at Vizcachitas, Chile

Los Andes Copper Ltd. [LA-TSXV; LSAN-OTC] reported excellent results from drilling completed at the 100%-owned Vizcachitas copper project in Chile.

Hole CMV-009, located near the southern edge of the current resources, returned results from 93.2 metres to 480.35 metres with a CuEq (copper equivalent) grade of 0.56%, including 0.53% copper, 62 parts per million molybdenum and 1.5 g/t silver. Included in this intercept is an interval from 108 metres to 260 metres (152 metres) grading 1% copper equivalent. Further drilling is planned to outline this area in detail.

Hole CMV-010, located near the western edge of the previous resource model, returned 377.3 metres (from 430 metres to 807.3 metres) of 0.31% CuEq. This result will be incorporated into the new resource assessment for the prefeasibility study targeted for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Michael Jones, CEO of Los Andes, commented: “The shallow mineralization in hole CMV-009 is impressive. The higher-grade areas of the deposit will be targeted for early mining, where accessible, in the developing PFS mine plan. Hole CMV-010 illustrates that the deposit is still open to the northwest, and assays are pending for hole CMV-011 that is further west. Hole[s] CMV-010 and CMV-011 will allow the western area to be reconsidered in the resource model. The opportunities to convert tonnes assumed to be waste in the preliminary economic assessment to resources in the mine plan for the PFS and to target high-grade areas are good opportunities to optimize the project.”

The drilling results indicate that the limits and the centre of the Vizcachitas porphyry copper deposit are not yet known. A further 3,300 metres of sampled core are awaiting assay results at this time.

All thicknesses from the drill hole intersections are down-hole drilled thicknesses. True widths will be estimated as the deposit model is updated and information becomes available. Hole CMV-002 was drilled in an open, shallow exploration area north of the current resource model. The deep part of the deposit in the north remains open. Holes CMV-003 and CMV-005 indicate that the shallow part of the system does not extend northward from the current resource model. However, deeper drilling in this area has good mineralization, and the depth potential to the north is still untested.

The company is preparing to file detailed reports with the environmental court on the issues raised in the recent court injunction to suspend drilling. The company is confident that the drilling project can continue, in accordance with its permits, with no significant effects to the environment, and the company welcomes continued dialogue with all stakeholders in a climate of mutual respect.

The project is a copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit 120 km north of Santiago, in an area of very good infrastructure. The company’s preliminary economic assessment, delivered in June, 2019, highlights that the project has a post-tax net present value of $1.8-billion and an internal rate of return of 20.77%, based on a copper price of US$3/lb. It also has a measured resource of 254.4 million tonnes grading 0.439% copper and an indicated resource of approximately 1.03 billion tonnes grading 0.385% copper.

The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.