Solaris rallies on Ecuador exploration update
Solaris Resources Inc. [SLS-TSXV, SLSSF-OTCQB] shares rallied Thursday after the company released an exploration update that included reports of new regional targets in the vicinity of its Warintza copper project in southeastern Ecuador.
The company said it has identified three new copper-molybdenum porphyry targets, five new skarn/carbonate replacement targets and a high-sulphidation epithermal gold target.
Exploration is ongoing at Warintza with seven active drill rigs targeting the near-surface mineralization, and, after protests in Ecuador concluded on June 30, 2022, the company’s core processing facility has resumed operations with a backlog of assays pending.
Solaris shares advanced on the news, rising 9.8% or 67 cents to $7.52. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $17.17 and $6.50.
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 demonstrates the potential to become a large, high-grade, open pit copper porphyry deposit, within the limits of the mineralization yet to be found.
Meanwhile, Solaris also said it is continuing to advance its proposed exploration spin-out by transferring its non-core assets to a wholly-owned subsidiary named Solaris Exploration Inc.
The non-core assets include its non-Warintza Ecuador assets, as well as its assets in Peru, Chile and Mexico.
Also, the new porphyry targets include Mateo (5.0 kilometres to the east of the recently discovered Warintza East zone), Cora (3.0 kilometres northeast of Warintza East) and Medio Camino (5.0 kilometres west of Warintza West). New skarn targets include Playas and Justo, Betty and Yawi and La Celestina. Caya was also identified as a high sulfidation epithermal gold target, located northeast of Warintza East.
Back in April, 2022, Solaris released a resource update which clearly reaffirms the high quality of its Warintza copper project, the company said.
The update included an in-pit indicate mineral resource of 579 million tonnes at 0.59% copper equivalent (CuEq), and an inferred resource of 887 million tonnes of 0.47% CuEq.
The updated resource estimate featured a high-grade near-surface starter pit of almost 300 million tonnes of grade 0.73%-0.82% CuEq (including 180 million tonnes of indicated material grading 0.82% CuEq, and 107 million tonnes of inferred material, grading 0.73% CuEq.
Resources outlined in the starter pit are expected to improve the payback timeframe and economics of any future mining operation.