Panoro drills 0.92% CuEq over 195.8 metres at Cotabambas, Peru
Panoro Minerals Ltd. [PML-TSXV] provided an update of its exploration drill program at its 100%-owned Cotabambas copper-gold-silver project in Peru.
Drill hole CB-195, the first hole completed of the 2022 program, intersected 195.8 metres averaging 0.55% copper, 0.52 g/t gold, 2.88 g/t silver (0.92% CuEq – copper equivalent), including a profile of copper oxides, mixed and hypogene zones. The primary copper sulphides in the hypogene zone include 45.7 metres grading 0.95% copper, 0.78 g/t gold and 4.35 g/t gold (1.51% CuEq) into a porphyry stock of quartz monzonite composition.
The drill program commenced with the mobilization of the first drill rig during the last week of April, 2022, at the South Pit area. The drill core was logged and sampled on site and samples were prepared and analyzed at ALS Chemex Laboratories in Lima.
The South Pit target is located between 400 to 1,200 metres to the south of the proposed North Pit as defined by the Sept. 22, 2015, preliminary economic assessment. The hole CB-195 tested the mineralized area located between previous drill holes CB-23 and CB-34, and was completed to a total depth of 240.2 metres. The table included in the release details the more significant intersections.
Luquman Shaheen, president and CEO, stated: “The results of drill hole CB-195 validate Panoro’s thesis that there exists potential to grow the high-grade component of the Cotabambas project resource. The high grades have been intersected near surface with the potential to provide additional high grade to the mine plan early in the proposed mine life. Furthermore, the intersection of the high grades in CB-195 at the South Pit also indicate the potential to extend the high-grade intersects along strike from the South Pit to the North Pit and to the north of the North Pit. Stepout and infill drilling is planned in these areas as part of the ongoing exploration program. The exploration program will continue to the end of the year with an estimated 16,000 metres of exploration drilling to be completed. We look forward to announcing results from drill hole assays as they are received and analyzed.”
The hole commenced within a barren lithocap leach capping of volcanic andesite package and diorite intrusive from surface to 35 metres, including supergene argillic alteration and traces of copper and manganese oxides.
From 35.0 m to 75.5 metres the hole intersected phyllic and potassically altered quartz monzonite with copper oxide grading 0.40% copper, 0.37 g/t gold, 2.77 g/t silver (0.67% CuEq).
From 75.5 to 95.0 metres the drill hole intersected potassic interleaved with sericite, chlorite, clay (SCC) alterations in the quartz monzonite porphyry hosting a copper mixed zone of 19.5-metre width averaging 1.01% copper, 1.15 g/t gold, 5.18 g/t silver (1.83% CuEq).
Finally, from 95.0 to 230.8 metres over the quartz monzonite porphyry with potassic/SCC alteration with primary chalcopyrite mineralization of 135.8 metres width grading 0.53% copper, 0.48 g/t gold and 2.59 g/t silver (0.88% CuEq), before re-entering the diorite intrusive host rock. A more strongly mineralized, silicified and potassically altered interval with disseminations and veinlets of chalcopyrite graded 0.95% copper, 0.78 g/t gold and 4.35 g/t silver (1.51% CuEq) over 45.7 metres from 95.0 to 140.7 metres.
Most of the high grade intersected by this hole will represent new resources to be added in the block model of the 2015 PEA pit. Additional drilling continues to test this mineralization to the northeast with the step-out hole CB-196.
The company’s objective is to complete a prefeasibility study in 2023 with work programs commencing in Q1 2022. At the Cotabambas project, Panoro will first focus on delineating resource growth potential and optimizing metallurgical recoveries. Exploration and step-out drilling from 2017, 2018 and 2019 have identified the potential for both oxide and sulphide resource growth.