New Areas Of Copper Mineralization At Los Chapitos
VANCOUVER - Camino Minerals Corporation reported on step-out drilling at Los Chapitos copper property near the coastal city of Chala in the department of Arequipa in Peru. New exploration targets at Diana, Lourdes, Koji Norte, and Koji Sur; were tested for the first time where the Company is targeting large-scale disseminated manto-type copper mineralization to support resource delineation studies at Los Chapitos and to identify new open-pit copper oxide deposits that could potentially be aggregated into a mine plan. The recently completed drill campaign aimed to expand beyond the previously identified Adriana zone, the main zone of mineralization at Los Chapitos with over 20,000 meters of drilling. Camino and its partner Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd. plan to commence the next phase of drilling in the second half of 2024.
Highlights of the First Phase of Drilling: 1) Diana Mineralized Zone: 25m @ 1.34 % Cu, 13.1 g/t Ag from surface in DCH-112. 2) Lourdes Mineralized Zone: 12.7m @ 0.79% Cu from 20.2m depth, including 4.5m @ 1.37% Cu, 6.24 g/t Ag in DCH-100; The intercept in DCH-100 potentially extends copper oxide mineralization 120 meters along strike connecting to intercepts in the 2022 drill program at Lourdes of: 55.5m @ 0.93% Cu from surface, including 7.5m @ 2.58% Cu in DCH-97 and 5.1m @ 1.32% Cu from 29m depth in DCH-92.
Jay Chmelauskas, CEO, said, “We are committed to expanding the boundaries of exploration at Los Chapitos to unlock the potential of our significant land package. The recent success of our step-out drilling campaign has revealed high-grade copper mineralization across significant intervals, underscoring the potential of the copper mineralizing system at Los Chapitos. The discovery of the Diana zone and the extension of the Lourdes zone reaffirm our strategic focus of identifying new deposits that could significantly contribute to our resource delineation studies and ultimately form our mine planning strategies."
The objective of the step-out drilling campaign that was completed in March 2024 at Los Chapitos was to explore for new zones of oxide copper mineralization. Drillholes targeted new areas more than 2 km from the known copper mineralization in the Adriana copper zone. The program was designed to test for buried copper stratabound mantos located near the copper-controlling structures like the Diva Fault Trend. In this first drilling phase, a total of 15 drillholes were completed to depths of ~150 metres (to a maximum of depth 256 metres) for a total of 2,225.7 metres drilled.
The program was successful at identifying or extending two new high-grade copper areas at the Diana and Lourdes zones. At other tested targets, such as Olguita, Melissa Norte, or Koji Sur, low-grade strata bound copper intercepts were encountered, or leaching zones were identified where copper zones had been previously leached, leaving trace remnants of copper. In addition to the planned follow-up drilling program in the Fall of 2024, Camino and Nittetsu plan to continue to expand exploration at Los Chapitos to the major mineralized trend at Atajo and surface mapping along the La Estancia trend.