Culpeo Minerals hits ‘significant’ copper in every hole at Chile project

Maiden drilling at Culpeo Minerals’ (ASX: CPO) Las Petacas project in Chile has confirmed broad copper-gold mineralisation in the first two holes.

These initial results from the program show that drilling intersected near-surface zones of copper and gold.

The first drill hole returned three mineralised zones: 3.5m at 0.74% copper and 0.55 grams per tonne gold, 3.5m at 0.43% copper and 0.25g/t gold, and 1m at 1% copper and 0.10g/t.

The other hole intersected five zones of mineralisation, the first reached at 41m down hole, returning 21m at 0.41% copper and 0.10g/t gold, 5m at 0.49% copper and 0.03g/t gold, 11m at 0.32% copper and 0.02g/t gold, 37m at 0.23% copper and 0.02g/t gold and — at 168m down hole — the fifth zone with 20m at 0.23% copper and 0.01g/t gold.

Assays on another three holes are outstanding.

Copper potential over a 6km trend

Culpeo managing director Max Tuesley said the assays highlight the potential for Las Petracas to host a “significant” copper deposit.

“These are very encouraging results from the maiden drill program with every hole returning zones of significant copper and gold mineralisation.”

He added that the drill results confirm historical drilling and illustrated copper potential over a 6km-long trend.

This trend remains largest untested.

The Las Petacas Project is located in northern Chile, approximately 640km north of Santiago and 35km south of the regional capital of Copiapó in the Atacama Region.

The project is 10km from the Pan-American Highway and consists of 22 granted exploration concessions.

Projects in Chile’s main copper producing region

The low-altitude Atacama Region is known to host significant mineral potential. One of the region’s main copper deposits is Lundin Mining Corporation’s world-class Candelaria mine, located 20km northeast of Las Petacas.

Copper mineralisation at Las Petacas is interpreted to be associated with the same regional structure as Candelaria, Culpeo notes.

Culpeo was incorporated in 2018 and has acquired the Las Petacas, Quelon and San Sebastian projects.

Quelon lies 240km north of Santiago, near the regional centre of Illapel, where Culpeo has the right to earn an 80% stake.

The project contains numerous historic mines. Copper grades up to 3% have been recorded from rock chip sampling at these historical workings.

About 55km from the port city of Caldera is the 100%-owned San Sebastian project, also part of the Atacama region.

Previous mining produced copper at an average grade of 6.8%.