Battery Mineral Resources Commences Drilling Program at Recently Acquired Punitaqui Copper GOLD MINE IN Chile
BATTERY MINERAL RESOURCES COMMENCES DRILLING PROGRAM AT
RECENTLY ACQUIRED PUNITAQUI COPPER GOLD MINE IN CHILE
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Vancouver, British Columbia – (July 26th, 2021) – Battery Mineral Resources Corp.
(TSXV: BMR) ("Battery" or “BMR” or the "Company") is pleased to announce it
has commenced the first phase of exploration and resource infill drilling at the
recently producing Punitaqui mine complex (“Punitaqui”) in Chile.
Highlights
• The 31 hole, 6,000 meter (“m”) resource infill and extensional drilling
program will focus on the San Andres zone.
• San Andres has established underground ramp access.
• San Andres is the “normal” fault displaced upper portion of the adjacent
Cinabrio copper deposit that was operated for 8 years by Glencore and
recently mined by Xiana Mining.
• The San Andres drill program is designed to infill previous drilling and extend
the resource definition drilling to the north and the south.
• The first diamond core drill commenced second week of July.
• Currently two drills are mobilized to site and drilling, third arriving in August.
• At San Andres, historic wide-spaced drilling, completed by the previous
operators between 2011- 2017, totaled 58 holes for 5,927m. Significant
intercepts reported included:
o SAS-20-07: 180m to 196m: 15.9m true width at 2.52% Cu;
o SA-50: 128m to 139m: 7.8m true width at 2.39% Cu;
o SAS-20-01: 186m to 197m: 10.1m true width at 2.16% Cu;
o SAS-20-08: 183m to 200m: 15.2m true width at 1.74% Cu.
• The San Andres target is the first of several historic zones identified by BMR
with established underground access for infill and extensional drilling.
San Andres Drill Program
San Andres is a zone of copper mineralization located 500m southwest of the high
grade Cinabrio Deposit mined by Glencore and Xiana Mining (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Punitaqui Project Geology and Mineral Occurrence Map
Prior to 1998, only limited extraction of high grade copper oxides was undertaken
at San Andres by small groups of local miners. In 2000 a Chilean national company
La Empressa Nacional de Mineria (“ENAMI”) developed carried out two underground
exploration drives targeting copper sulphides. In 2005, via an option process, San
Andres became part of the Punitaqui mine complex.
In 2007, a ground geophysical induced polarization (“IP”) survey was completed on
250m - 500m spaced lines across the San Andres-Cinabrio area. The results of the
IP survey line across the southern end of the San Andres zone identified a strong
chargeability anomaly interpreted to represent potential extensions of the copper
sulphide mineralization at depth and along strike.
At San Andres, historic wide-spaced drilling completed by the previous operators
between 2011- 2017 totaled 58 holes for 5,927m (Figure 2 and Table 1).
Table 1: San Andreas Historic Drilling Significant Copper Intercepts
Drillhole From
(m)
To
(m)
Interval Length*
(m)
Copper Grade
(%)
SAS-20-07 180 196 15.9 2.52
SA-50 128 139 7.8 2.39
SAS-20-01 186 197 10.1 2.16
SAS-19-05 173 189 14.3 1.85
SAS-20-08 183 200 15.2 1.74
SAS-17-04A 209 213 2.8 2.52
SAS-17-05 229 234 3.2 1.80
SAS-17-06 189 197 5.9 2.30
SAS-17-06 216 223 5.2 1.87
*Indicates true width
Figure 2: Location Map San Andres Target on Satellite Image
The recently producing Cinabrio copper deposit is interpreted as an Iron Oxide
Copper Gold (“IOCG”) type manto deposit. The known mineralization has a strike
length of about 750 meters and the mineralisation is between 10 - 30 meters thick.
The mineralized horizon thickness is very continuous up to a depth of around 700
meters. Chalcopyrite and minor bornite and pyrite comprise the known deposit
mineralogy and the mineralized horizon dips steeply to the east and is sometimes
fault-displaced.
Immediately to the southwest of the Cinabrio deposit is San Andres, which is the
faulted offset of the top of the Cinabrio orebody. As currently defined, the
mineralized zone at San Andres is approximately 10 meters thick and varies from
5m to 30m (Figure 3).
San Andres is a tabular sedimentary horizon within a volcanic sequence. This
sedimentary horizon is variably mineralized and has a variable width ranging from
5m - 30m. It consists of an interlayered volcano-sedimentary sequence composed
of dark colored laminated and unlaminated shales, volcanoclastic sandstone,
conglomerates and breccias and tuff breccias. There is a variable component of
syngenetic pyrite. The horizon dips 40 to 50 degrees to the east and is cut-off at
depth by the moderately west dipping San Andres fault.
Mineralization consists of veinlets and irregular disseminations in both the fine and
coarse-grained clastic rocks and locally within the volcanic rocks above and below
the host unit. The host horizon is also cut and offset by other faults with a wide
range of orientations. The principle orientations identified to date include:
• moderately west dipping splays of the San Andres fault generally with down
to the west movement
• steep dipping northeast to northwest trending faults with both sinistral and
dextral offsets
• Faults parallel and sub-parallel to stratigraphy
Figure 3: Interpretive Cross Section – North San Andres to Cinabrio (Skarmeta 2019)
The intersection of the San Andres fault and the host sedimentary unit plunges
toward the south. Because of this the potential volume of ore within the host
sedimentary horizon increases towards the south.
The host sedimentary unit at San Andres is in a north-northwest trending ridge.
The surface trace of the mineralized unit crosses from the east side of the ridge in
the northern part of San Andres to the western side of the ridge in the southern
part. The east dipping host unit is dipping at a shallow angle into the topography in
the north and at a very steep angle into the topography in the south. For this
reason, the depth of oxidation of the mineralization is expected to decrease
significantly in the south.
The current 6,000m resource expansion program will focus on San Andres, which is
the “normal” fault-displaced upper portion of the adjacent high grade Cinabrio
mine. Cinabrio was last in production by Xiana Mining as recently as April 2020 and
previous to that was mined by Glencore for approximately 8 years. The San Andres
target has established underground ramp access.
Historic drilling at San Andres has identified copper mineralisation over about an
800m strike based on 100m spaced drill sections. The zone extends from surface
with potential at depth and along strike in both directions (Figure 4 and Figure 5).
Currently two diamond core drill rigs are operating at San Andres with a third rig
expected in early August. The San Andres drill program is designed to infill previous
drilling and further the resource extensional drilling to the north and the south
(Photo 1 and Photo 2). The current phase of planned drilling comprises 6,000m in
31 drillholes.
Battery CEO Martin Kostuik states ; “We are pleased announce that our San Andres
infill drilling program is now underway with two drills running and a third drill soon
to be added. Organizing and commencing a drill program so soon after the close of
the Punitaqui acquisition is an impressive achievement. San Andres was an obvious
target to launch our program as it is located just 500m southwest of the Cinabrio
copper mine and has established underground ramp access. Earlier wide -spaced
historic drilling has identified an 800m long zone that is open at depth and in both
directions along strike. We believe this resource drilling program has the potential to
provide the Company with a second source of copper ore along with existing ore
remaining in Cinabrio. The results of the program will be the catalyst for a new
Technical Report that will be our road map to near -term copper production at
Punitaqui.”
Figure 4: 2021 Drill Collar Location with Historic Drilling
Background
The Punitaqui mining district is located approximately 35 km South of Ovalle in
Region IV of Chile.
Punitaqui was discovered in 1780 and was exploited by and for the Spanish
government. Historical records of Punitaqui total production and activity are poor.
Cinabrio, has been worked periodically since 1968, focussed on exploitation of
copper oxides.
In 1965, a geophysical study of induced polarization was conducted and
subsequently 141m meters of diamond drilling completed.
Between the months of July and November 1972, 19 diamond drillholes were
completed, totaling 630m followed by development of the main access to level 410.
In 2004 the property was acquired by CMC which applied for an exploitation permit
based on a sublevel stoping mining plan.
Between 2007 and 2010 Tamaya Resources Limited completed exploration and
feasibility work completed focussed on exploiting oxide copper resources.
In 2010 Glencore International Plc acquired the project and developed the Cinabrio
deposit.
In 22 May 2018, Xiana Mining Inc. acquired the property and commenced
operations.
In March 2021 Battery Mineral Resources Corp entered into an agreement to
acquire Minera Altos de Punitaqui Limitada.
The Punitaqui mining project contains 11,838 hectares of concessions. Of these
6,900 hectares of these concessions are exploration concessions and 4,938
hectares are exploitation concessions. The mine property totals 1,138 mining claims
and 4 mining leases.
BMR’s holding include three areas which have established underground access
including the Cinabrio, San Andres and Dalmacia.
Punitaqui is a past producing mining operation which consists of an integrated
copper-gold mining complex. The site is fully permitted and includes a centralized
process plant which was fed by the Cinabrio mine and satellite, underground zones
at San Andres and Dalmacia.
The process plant consists of a standard copper sulphide crush-grind-flotation
circuit to produce a marketable copper-gold concentrate for domestic and foreign
smelters. The plant historically operated at a permitted capacity of 3,000 tonnes
per day (“tpd”) with allowances to 3,600tpd, with a potential capacity of 4,000tpd
to be investigated.
The Punitaqui project is situated within a 25km long mineralized district that is a
classic IOCG and mantos style copper belt that is comprised of mantos and
structural controlled copper-gold-silver veins.
Photo 1: San Andres Drilling