4 Billion Pound Copper Discovery in Chile
VANCOUVER, BC - South American Silver Corp. reported the first independent NI 43-101-qualified resource estimate for the Company's 100%-controlled Escalones copper-gold-silver project in central Chile.
Highlights: Newly defined Inferred Resource of 420 million tonnes of mineralized material containing 3.8 billion lbs of copper, 56.9million lbs of molybdenum, 610,000 ozs of gold and 16.8 million ozs of silver using a 0.2% Cu Equivalent cut-off grade which represents approximately a $2.50/lb copper price; This is a copper equivalent content of 4.5 billion lbs of copper grading 0.49% based on approximate 3-year average metal prices of $3.00/lb copper, $1,200/oz gold, $22/oz silver and $16/lb molybdenum; The deposit remains open to expansion laterally and down dip with 90% of this first resource hosted in copper, gold and silver replacement-style mineralization, and one drill hole testing porphyry-style mineralization; The70 square kilometer Escalones project is located in the world-class central Chilean mining district which includes the nearby El Teniente deposit, which is the world's largest underground copper mine; A ZTEM and aeromagnetic survey potentially indicating areas of additional sulfide mineralization has been completed for the property and is being interpreted; Two drills are currently being mobilized to the project for a Phase-II program with approximately 7,000 meters of drilling anticipated to begin in January and to complete in April.
"Escalones is the second major resource developed by South American Silver since the Company's IPO in 2007, and was originally discovered by Ralph Fitch, Executive Chairman, and Felipe Malbran, Vice President of Exploration. This resource estimate gives shareholders and other investors a tangible way to begin to value this outstanding second project in the Company's portfolio. With 4.5 billion pounds of copper equivalent metal, this resource is already larger and higher-grade than many much better known copper-gold projects in North and South America. To put this new discovery in context, the resource here is already approximately equivalent in value, size and scale to South American Silver's more advanced Malku Khota silver-indium project, effectively doubling the Company's in-ground resources," commented Greg Johnson, President and CEO.