Solaris eyes copper resource update in Ecuador

Solaris Resources Inc. [SLS-TSX, SLSSF-OTCQB] is looking ahead to a resource update after releasing more impressive assay results from a series of additional holes from mineral resource growth drilling at its Warintza copper project in southeastern Ecuador.

The company said the latest results have now established continuity of mineralization between the Warintza Central and Warintza East deposits with Solaris noting in a press release that Warintza East remains entirely open and undrilled to the north, south, and east for future potential growth.

Solaris shares were largely unchanged on the news, easing 0.07% or $0.01 to $14.08 in light trading volume. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $17.17 and $8.46.

Warintza is a world class porphyry copper discovery, with untested gold potential, that the company has been able to expand in recent months. It was discovered in the early 2000s by geologist David Lowell, who was a consultant and strategic partner to Solaris when he passed away in May, 2020. He was 92 at the time of his death.

The company has said the Warintza Central area of the 26,777-hectare project continues to demonstrate the potential to become a large, high-grade, open pit copper porphyry deposit, within the limits of the mineralization yet to be found.

Warintza Central is presently defined by a pit-optimized mineral resource estimate of 124 million tonnes of inferred resources, grading 0.70% copper equivalent (0.56% copper, 0.03% molybdenum, and 0.1 g/t gold). The estimate is based on less than 7,000 metres of drilling on the discovery outcrop and to an average depth of just under 200 metres.

However, the company is hoping to increase the inferred resource at Warintza Central to around 1.0 billion tonnes.

Drilling in recent months has focused on further extensional and step-out drilling, including establishing the potential link to the recently discovered Warintza East zone.

Since the discovery of Warintza East in mid-2021, approximately 1.0 kilometre east of Warintza Central, limited drilling has been completed on the open pit area between the two deposits that would fall into the eastern sector of the conceptual pit design for Warintza Central waste – these results now establish continuity of mineralization between the two deposits with Warintza East remaining entirely open and undrilled to the north, south, and east for future potential growth.

Drilling highlights include hole SLSE-04, which was collared between Warintza Central and Warintza East and drilled west-southwest into a partially open volume, returning 616 metres of 0.63% copper equivalent (CuEq) from 276 metres depth within a broader interval of 892 metres of 0.50% CuEq from surface, establishing the overlap of the two deposits within the Warintza Central pit shell.

To date, 62 holes have been completed at Warintza Central with assay results reported for 54 of these and eight holes have been completed at Warintza East with results reported for all holes.

“Following the final Warintza Central results released April 4, 2022, these results represent the final holes from Warintza East to be included in the forthcoming mineral resource update and serve to convert what would otherwise be uncategorized waste within the expected pit shell in the area where Warintza Central and Warintza East overlap,” said Jorge Fierro, vice-president, exploration at Solaris.