Valor boosts Berenguela copper, silver and zinc JORC resource by 80%

Valor Resources (ASX: VAL) has boosted its resources more than 80% at its Berenguela copper, silver and zinc project in Southern Peru.

Total resources at Berenguela now sit at 45.92 million tonnes grading 1.27% copper equivalent, which includes a 37% increase in contained copper to 722 million pounds, 37% rise in silver to 127 million ounces and a 45% augmentation in contained zinc levels to 286 million pounds.

“These high grades, paired with the shallow nature of the Berenguela orebody, make this asset highly competitive when compared to world class copper mines in Southern Peru, such as Antapaccay (Glencore) which reports measured and indicated resources of 0.47% copper,” Valor chairman Mark Sumner said.

“We have now added over 357 million pounds of contained copper to the resources,” he said, adding: “This represents an 86% increase in total contained copper since Valor acquired the Berenguela project in May 2017.”

According to Mr Sumner, the silver resource, alone, makes the project a “compelling” asset.

With the latest resource upgrade, the company has increased its confidence in the resource with 7.71 million tonnes grading 1.60% copper equivalent shifted to the measured category – accounting for 16% of total resources.

“The maiden measured resource brings much greater geological certainty to the deposit and gives the company a strong foundation to proceed with further drilling and more advanced project studies,” Mr Sumner claimed.

He added the company would test a number of mineralisation targets at Berenguela with only 2.1% of the project area currently explored.

“We believe the full scale of the Berenguela project is yet to be realised,” Mr Sumner said.

The company is updating its scoping study to include the upgraded resource estimate and will develop a new set of baseline project economics.

Additionally, further drill targets are being formulated with exploration to kick off at some stage this year.

By early afternoon trade, Valor’s share price was up 4.55% to A0.023.