Culpeo Minerals identifies large copper-gold zone at Quelon project
The copper-gold zone revealed at Culpeo’s Anico prospect in Chile extends over a strike length of 1km.
Surface sampling and mapping at the large-scale Quelon project in Chile has delineated a copper-gold mineralised zone for owner Culpeo Minerals (ASX: CPO).
Extending over 1km strike at the Anico prospect, the zone returned grades of more than 1.30% copper and 4.1 grams per tonne gold from 56 samples.
Mapping over an area of 3 sq km also located several historic mine workings in the area, confirming the exploration potential of the district.
IOCG prospectivity
Anico is considered to have significant prospectivity for iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) or porphyry-style mineralisation due to elevated chargeability anomalies and its proximity to magnetic highs and mapped alteration in outcrop.
The newly-discovered copper-gold zone on surface is coincident with the Anico geophysical anomaly, giving further evidence to a deeper mineralised body at the prospect.
Five pole-dipole induced polarisation (PDIP) survey lines have been completed at the prospect, targeting a trend which had been previously identified by a high magnetic and high-amplitude chargeability response in a historical induced polarisation (IP) survey.
Detailed field mapping of key prospect and PDIP target areas has been completed, with trenching and drill hole planning to follow.
Zone potential
Culpeo managing director Max Tuesley said he is optimistic about the potential of the new copper-gold zone.
“We are encouraged by preliminary exploration results at Quelon, which demonstrate the depth of our growth pipeline,” he said.
“The widespread visual presence of copper mineralisation at Anico and the discovery of historical mine workings support our recently-defined IP anomalies and we will commence trenching to gain greater insights on the potential of this prospect.”
Quelon location
The Quelon project is 240km north of Santiago and hosts artisanal workings; however, modern exploration has been limited to rock chip sampling and geophysical surveys.
It sits 40km south of Culpeo’s flagship Lana Corina project, which covers 5.5 sq km of Chile’s prolific copper belt.
Historically, about 1 million tonnes of ore has been mined from Lana Corina with grades ranging between 1.5% and 2.5% copper.