Freeport Completes Acquisition of Yandera Copper Project
Web: www.freeportresources.com
NEWS RELEASE August 16th, 2021
Freeport Completes Acquisition of Yandera Copper Project
Vancouver, British Columbia – (August 16th, 2021) – Freeport Resources Inc. (the “Company”) is
pleased to announce that it has acquired all of the outstanding share capital of Carpo Resources Inc.
(“Carpo”). Carpo is a privately-held company which controls Era Resources Inc., a corporation
established under the laws of Cayman Islands and which itself controls an exploration license located
in Papua New Guinea and which is commonly known as the “Yandera Copper Project”.
Carpo was acquired pursuant to a share purchase agreement, dated effective June 25th, 2021, entered
into with Carpo, and all of the shareholders of Carpo (collectively, the “Vendors”). The Company is at
arms-length from each of Carpo, and the Vendors. In consideration for all of the outstanding share
capital of Carpo, the Company has issued 20,000,000 common shares to the Vendors. In connection
with completion of the Transaction, the Company does not expect to assume any material liabilities,
nor does it expect to devote the majority of its working capital or resources to the development of
Carpo or the Yandera Copper Project. As a result, the Transaction does not constitute a fundamental
acquistion for the Company, within the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Transaction did
not result in the creation of a new insider, or a change of control, of the Company, within the meaning
of applicable securities laws.
The acquisition of the Yandera Copper Project, which is one of the largest undeveloped copper
deposits in the world, is in line with the Company’s mandate to seek out, identify and acquire
undervalued projects globally. The Company previously acquired the Star Mountains Copper & Gold
Project, also in Papua New Guinea.
The Yandera Copper Project
The Yandera Project area was the subject of intensive, drill-based exploration programs during the late
1960s and 1970s by a number of companies. The historic activity, which included 102 diamond drill
holes totaling over 33,000 metres, culminated in the preparation of a mining study by BHP, identifying
the Yandera porphyry system as containing one of the largest undeveloped porphyry copper systems
(with ancillary molybdenum and gold) in the world.
Subsequent to that, Era Resources Inc. spent over USD $100 million and drilled another 471 holes
totaling over 144,000 metres. There remains opportunity for further exploration to increase the
resource.
A Pre-Feasibility Study, completed by Worley Parsons in 2017 showed total resources of 959 million
tonnes of copper equivalent grading 0.37% including measured & indicated resources of 728 million
tonnes grading 0.39% copper equivalent, and 541 million tonnes of Probable Reserves averaging
0.39% copper equivalent. The measured and indicated resources equate to 6.2 billion pounds of
copper equivalent and total resources equate to almost 8 billion pounds of copper equivalent.
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Location, Physiograpy and Accessibility
The Yandera project is located approximately 95km southwest of the city of Madang in the foothills of
the Bismarck Mountain Range, which is part of the central cordillera of New Guinea, at an elevation of
approximately 1,900m above sea level. The site is situated on the northern side of the range, about
13km east-northeast from Mt. Wilhelm, with the extensive floodplain of the Ramu River
approximately 20km to the east.
The deposit area is mountainous with the Imbrum River valley to the west and the Tai-Yor River
valley to the east. Materials and transport for the site team are via helicopter from Madang Airport or
from a lay down yard which runs through the village of Usino, a 10-12 minute flight away.
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History
In 1965, Kennecott acquired the Exploration License (EL) to work on the Project. They continued
ownership and operated until 1973, when Triako Mines acquired the Project and had its operator,
Amdex, complete the work programs.
Amdex jointly worked with Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) on the property from 1974 to
1977. In 1978 Amdex joint-ventured with Buka Minerals. Work and ownership between Amdex and
Buka Minerals continued until 1984, when they dropped the Project. The Project sat idle until 1999,
when Highland Pacific and Cyprus Amax acquired an EL and worked on the Project before dropping it
prior to 2000.
The Project then sat idle again until Belvedere Limited acquired the EL for the property. In 2005,
Belvedere formed a joint-venture with Marengo Mining Limited, who operated the property.
In 2006, Marengo Mining acquired the Project through the purchase of Belvedere’s interest.
Since then Marengo Mining, now Era Resources Inc., has been the sole owner and operator of the
Project. Era was subsequently acquired by Carpo which is now owned by the Company.
Geology
Yandera is an igneous, intrusive-hosted, structurally controlled copper porphyry system with ancillary
molybdenum and gold composed of a series of adjacent, vertically oriented deposits along recognized
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structural trends. Mineralization is concentrated in several deposits, namely, Imbruminda, Gremi,
Omora, Gamagu and Dimbi. Imbruminda, Gremi, and Omora are contiguous and separated from
Dimbi by a low-grade, central, silica-rich zone, which is bounded on three sides by high angle faults.
The bulk of the mineralization is adjacent to these major structures on a northwest-southeast trend.
Locally, north-northeast-trending cross faults bound mineral domains and reflect the structural
complexity of the district.
The property lies within the New Guinea Orogenic Belt, which stretches from the southeastern portion
of the island through the central mountain ranges into Indonesia, and to the west of Grasberg, Freeport
McMoran's giant Copper-Gold mine. The belt is home to some of the world’s largest producing mines
and deposits, including the aforementioned Grasberg, which hosts the largest reserve of gold and
second largest reserve of copper in the world.
This belt includes slices of metamorphic basement and contains a variety of sedimentary packages.
Above Paleozoic and early Mesozoic schists, marbles and granodiorite lie packages of Triassic to
Jurassic volcanic, and clastic sediments, and Jurassic to Cretaceous clastic, volcanic, and volcanogenic
sediments.
Papua New Guinea & Mining
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Since the early 1970s, the mining industry has dominated the economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG)
accounting for the vast mority of it’s export revenues. It is also one of the largest employers
and builders of infrastructure in the country. Mining in PNG requires balancing the interests of mining
companies with the local and national governments, the local communities and landowners all the
while observing the environmental responsibility and sustainability issues.
Despite these challenges, there are comparatively few areas left in the world that offer the potential for
the development of large-scale mining projects within a district as prospective as the New Guinea
Orogenic Belt. Home to the giant existing mines Grasberg, Ok Tedi, Porgera and Lihir, PNG also has
district-scale projects in the pipeline such as Wafi-Golpu and Frieda River.
Copper
As the world transitions to a net-zero future, this shift towards electrification and sustainable energy is
creating a surge in the demand for copper since copper is a key component in wind, solar and battery
technologies due to it’s ductility and conductivity. At the same time, the supply for copper has
remained stagnant and these conditions are expected to persist throughout the decade. With the
addition of Yandera to the Company’s portfolio, the Company has the ability to capitalize on this
potential market imbalance in the coming years.
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Dr. Nathan Chutas, Ph.D., CPG, Senior Vice-President of Operations for the Company, is a qualified
person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Chutas has reviewed and approved the
technical content in this news release.
Please visit www.freeportresources.com or contact the email address below for more information.
On behalf of the Board,
Freeport Resources Inc.
Gord Friesen, Chief Executive Officer
(236) 334-1660 or [email protected]
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release may contain certain “Forward-Looking Statements” within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When or if used in this news release, the words “anticipate”, “believe”,
“estimate”, “expect”, “target, “plan”, “forecast”, “may”, “schedule”, “intends” and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking
statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to the intended completion of the Transaction, the
Yandera Copper Project, and other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company’s current views with respect to future
events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are
inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors,
both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance