SSR Mining drills 1.4% copper over 140 metres at Copper Hill, Turkey

SSR Mining Inc. [SSRM-TSX, NASDAQ; SSR-ASX] reported results from 42 diamond drill holes completed at the Copper Hill property from June 2022, to October 2022. Copper Hill is located approximately 30 km southwest of the town of Kurtun in the Black Sea region of northeast Turkey and is approximately 260 km from SSR Mining’s Hod Maden project. Exploration at Copper Hill to date has focused on defining the initial footprint of copper mineralization through diamond drilling. Reflecting the Property’s growth potential, SSR Mining increased its ownership in the Copper Hill joint venture to 70% at the end of 2021.

At present, copper mineralization has been defined along nearly 1 km of strike to a depth of approximately 250 metres below surface. Currently, the mineralization exhibits low levels of other metals (less than 0.03% lead and zinc) and arsenic (averaging below 8ppm), suggesting potential for a clean copper concentrate attractive to smelting companies. Results to date also showcase mineralization starting from surface over broad intercepts that suggest potential for an open pit operation in the future. Exploration activity is planned to restart in September 2023, targeting potential extensions of the currently defined mineralization as well as identifying and testing new targets on the property.

Highlights: CH002 returned 1.1% copper over 37.0 metres from surface. CH012 returned 1.4% Cu over 139.7 metres from 134.4 metres, including 1.6% Cu over 33.9 metres from 204.2 metres and 3.5% Cu over 21.3 metres from 246.4 metres. CH020 returned 2.2% Cu over 31.9 metres from 282.5 metres. CH038 returned 1.4% Cu over 44.7 metres from 7.6 metres, including 2.4% Cu over 18.6 metres from 22.0 metres.

Copper Hill is 70% owned and operated by SSR Mining and 30% owned by joint venture partner Lidya Mines. Copper Hill sits within a package of exploration leases known as Kazlkbeli and all leases are unencumbered by any existing royalties.

The Lidya Mines exploration team discovered Copper Hill and undertook the preliminary exploration activities on behalf of the Joint Venture. Exploration activities were initiated in 2009, consisting of surface sampling (rock and soil sampling) and ground magnetics. In April 2020, results were released for the initial eight diamond drill holes, totaling 3,181 metres, completed on the Property. To date, 77 diamond drill holes, totaling 24,600 metres, have been completed. The northwest-southeast trending mineralized zone has been identified over a strike length of more than 900 metres with a minimum width of 300 metres and starting at surface to a currently defined depth extent of at least 250 metres.

In addition to forthcoming drilling plans, the exploration team is planning geophysical surveys at Copper Hill for the 2023 field season, which aims to advance the continued definition of the potential overall extent of mineralization at the Property. SSR Mining is also planning additional regional exploration activity to identify and test copper skarn and porphyry targets across the greater Kazlkbeli land package.

Copper Hill is a skarn-type copper prospect associated with a late Cretaceous volcano-plutonic complex consisting of a volcano-sedimentary sequence intruded by three intrusive phases

Currently, the mineralization at Copper Hill is considered “clean” as it exhibits low levels of other metals (less than 0.03% lead and zinc) and arsenic (averaging below 8ppm), suggesting potential for a clean copper concentrate attractive to smelting companies. This is atypical for skarn-type deposits and should bode well for future economic studies on the property.

SSR Mining is a leading, free cash flow focused gold company with four producing operations located in the USA, Turkey, Canada, and Argentina, combined with a global pipeline of high-quality development and exploration assets. Over the last three years, the four operating assets combined have produced, on average, more than 700,000 gold-equivalent ounces annually.