Fitzroy Minerals Announces Acquisition of Ptolemy Mining Limited
Fitzroy Minerals Announces Acquisition of Ptolemy Mining Limited
Vancouver, British Columbia, October 30, 2024 – Fitzroy Minerals Inc. (TSXV: FTZ) (OTCQB: FTZFF)
(“Fitzroy Minerals” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a share exchange
agreement (the “ Definitive Agreement ”) dated October 30, 2024 with Ptolemy Mining Limited
(“Ptolemy”) and the shareholders of Ptolemy (the “ Vendors”), pursuant to which the Company will
acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Ptolemy from the Vendors (the “Acquisition”).
Ptolemy Mining Limited and the Buen Retiro Project
Ptolemy is a UK-registered private company that, through a wholly-owned Chilean subsidiary, is the legal
and beneficial holder of options to acquire the Manto Negro, Buen Retiro and Sierra Fritis properties
located in Chile (collectively, the “Buen Retiro Project” or the “Properties”). The Manto Negro and Buen
Retiro concessions are held under a single option agreement (the “Buen Retiro Option”). The Sierra Fritis
concessions are held under a separate option agreement (the “Sierra Fritis Option”).
Buen Retiro Project
The Properties are situated close to the Candelaria deposit in the Punta del Cobre iron-oxide-copper-gold
(“IOCG”) district of Copiapó, Chile. High grade copper oxide ore was mined from 2005 to 2009 at Manto
Negro and trucked 60 km to a processing plant in Copiapó. The Manto Negro open pit is 43 km southwest
of Candelaria, 35 km from the coast, and 5 km from the Pan American Highway and high voltage
transmission lines. The Buen Retiro Project has a wealth of information, including assay data from
28,290 m of historical drilling records; core and data from 4,895 m of recent diamond drilling; and raw
and interpreted data from extensive geophysical surveys.
Ptolemy consolidated the land tenure across the Properties and conducted the first ever systematic
review and subsequent exploration of the wider Buen Retiro Project area. The concessions, totalling
13,840 ha, are held through two distinct option agreements with local parties. Exploration is on-going and
the Buen Retiro Project is at a pre-resource, advanced exploration stage of development. Fitzroy Minerals
believes that the Chilean Buen Retiro Project has the potential to host a promising copper deposit.
Highlights:
The Buen Retiro Project potentially hosts a significant copper deposit.
Historical mine in a 13,840 ha property close to the ~1 billion tonne Candelaria IOCG deposit.
Recent drilling results include 135 m @ 0.73% Cu from surface, and 30 m @ 3.50% Cu from 130 m.
Mr. Merlin Marr-Johnson, President and CEO of Fitzroy Minerals commented, "The Buen Retiro Project is
a transformational acquisition for Fitzroy Minerals. The Buen Retiro Project offers the opportunity to work
on a potentially significant IOCG deposit in a copper-rich district in Chile, the worlds’ leading copper-
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producing country. There is a real shortage of large open pittable copper deposits with excellent
infrastructure in established mining jurisdictions. Buen Retiro offers Fitzroy Minerals shareholders
significant discovery leverage into a copper bull market.
Upon completion of the Acquisition, the Company will have a balanced portfolio of assets. Gold-copper-
silver at Polimet in Chile that is on-trend from the El Bronce gold deposit, copper at Caballos in Chile; and
now the Buen Retiro Project with more than 33,000 m of drilling already completed suggesting
characteristics of a major copper deposit.
The Caballos Copper Project and the Polimet Gold-Copper-Silver Project, are both moving towards drill-
readiness. The Company will provide a separate exploration update shortly. Upon closing the Acquisition,
drilling will immediately re-start at the Buen Retiro Copper Project.”
Location and Setting
The Buen Retiro Project is located approximately 60 km south of Copiapó in north-central Chile (Figure 1).
The area is known for its copper mineralisation and mining culture. A series of iron oxide Cu-Au (+/- Co)
deposits (IOCGs) of varying sizes are located within a ~20 km x 5 km, north-south elongated, Punta del
Cobre belt to the south of Copiapó. This district includes the Alcaparrosa, Carola, Española, Punta del
Cobre, Santos, Socavón Rampa and Trinidad deposits, along with the much larger Candelaria Cu-Au
deposit. The Candelaria operation is owned by Lundin Mining with 2024 production guidance of 160,000-
170,000 tonnes of copper and 100,000-110,000 ounces of gold1. As of December 31, 2022, after 25 years
of mining, the Candelaria mineral resources were still over a billion tonnes of total measured and indicated
mineral resources2 (Table 1).
The historical Manto Negro open pit located within the 13,840 ha Buen Retiro Project, is about 43 km
southwest of Candelaria, and 35 km east of the coast. The historical pit is located about 5 km west of the
Pan-American Highway and high voltage transmission lines which themselves cross the eastern portion of
the Buen Retiro concessions (Figure 1). The terrain is low relief desert, characterised by low hills and gravel
cover, at an average elevation of 370 metres.
The Company cautions that the information on the Candelaria and Punta del Cobre properties is not
necessarily indicative of the mineralization on the Buen Retiro Project and has not been independently
verified by the Company or Qualified Person Gilberto Schubert. The Company has no right to explore or
mine on the Candelaria and Punta del Cobre properties. Technical information on Candelaria and Punta
del Cobre comes from publicly available sources such as the Lundin Mining website, a technical report on
resource and reserve estimates2, and online at Porter Geoconsultancy.
Work Summary
The Manto Negro copper oxide mine was operated from 2005-2009 by Pucobre Ltd (“Pucobre”). Pucobre
is a Chilean-listed public mining company that produced 77.5 million pounds of copper in 20233. Pucobre
1 https://lundinmining.com/operations/candelaria-mine/.
2 Technical Report for the Candelaria Copper Mining Complex, Atacama Region, Region III, Chile, February 22, 2023.
3 Pucobre website (https://www.pucobre.cl/). Financial accounts for the years ending 31 December 2023 and 2022,
and independent auditor’s report, p.88.
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owns an SX/EW plant (Planta Biocobre) located 13 km from Copiapó. Historical records indicate that
approximately 1.3 Mt @ 1.2 % CuS (leachable copper) was transported from Manto Negro Mine to the
Biocobre plant when the Manto Negro mine was active.
Figure 1. Location of the Buen Retiro Copper Project, Copiapó, Chile
Ptolemy has assays from 21,566 m of historical drill data that is mostly in-pit or close to the historical pit,
although almost no core or chips were stored. The digital records do not consistently contain geological
information. The density of data and the intensity of historical exploration work diminishes with distance
away from the historical pit.
Historical geophysical work includes magnetometry (detailed and regional), gravity, induced polarisation
surveys (pole-dipole, dipole-dipole, and gradient array), and radiometrics; gravel cover precludes effective
use of geochemistry. Ptolemy has access to some of this historical raw data and all of the past reports.
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Table 1. Audited Mineral Resource Statement, Compa ñia Contractual Minera Candelaria, SRK
Consulting (Canada) Inc., December 31, 2022 (100% Basis)
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Ptolemy is the first company to consolidate the land holdings across the wider project area, and the first
company to carry out systematic exploration of the Buen Retiro Project. In the past 12 months, Ptolemy
has drilled and assayed 4,895 m of diamond drill core. Ptolemy also commissioned aerophotogrammetry
to generate high-resolution orthomosaics and topography, 380 line-km of ground magnetics, 90 line-km
of induced polarisation (pole-dipole with 100 m and 50 m spacing), and ground gravimetrics from 178
stations. The surveys were designed to fill gaps in historical data and provide better resolution where
possible. In addition, Ptolemy has carried out a percussion drilling exercise (down the hole or “DTH”
drilling) to test the geology below gravel cover in an area to the north of the old open pit mine and near
diamond drill hole BRT-DDH03. The average gravel thickness was 10.9 m from 43 holes drilled, and the
4 Technical Report for the Candelaria Copper Mining Complex, Atacama Region, Region III, Chile, February 22, 2023.
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DTH holes recovered approximately 3.0 m of chips from oxidised bedrock that were analysed using XRF
analyser techniques. Phase 2 drilling, petrography, preliminary metallurgical test work, and further DTH
drilling is planned.
Results
Work by Ptolemy confirms that Buen Retiro Project has many similarities to Candelaria in terms of
geological setting, scale, and geophysical signature. Both Candelaria and Buen Retiro are located 1,500 m
to east of the regional contact between intrusive and volcanic rocks (Figure 2). Both are located close to
the northeast-southwest Ojancos-Florida shear zone which is a major regional structure (Figure 3). And
both are hosted in the Punta del Cobre Formation (andesites and volcanoclastic rocks).
The Company cautions that it has not verified the information on the Candelaria property, and the
information on the Candelaria property is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on the Buen
Retiro Project.
Figure 2. Regional Geology, Buen Retiro Project Figure 3. IP anomaly, Buen Retiro Project
North of the old pit at Buen Retiro, Ptolemy has intersected disseminated sulphide mineralisation that is
similar to Candelaria-style mineralisation, including 21 m @ 0.41% Cu and 0.11 g/t Au, from 241 metres.
Around and to the south of the old pit, Ptolemy has intersected classic Punta del Cobre-style IOCG
mineralisation consisting of chalcopyrite and minor bornite and chalcocite associated with hematite-rich
breccias, sub-vertical structural zones, and intrusive rocks. The median intersection across all 14 Buen
Retiro Property drill holes to date is 27 m @ 0.55% Cu. Stand-out intersections include 30 m @ 3.50% Cu,
from 130 m in hole BRT-DDH13 and 135 m @ 0.73% Cu from surface in hole BRT-DDH06; see Figure 4 and
Tables 2 and 3 for details. True widths are estimated to be 70% of the reported core interval widths.
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Figure 4. Plan map with drill core assay results, summary and location, Buen Retiro Project
The drilling results are copper-rich, with an average grade of 0.16% Cu across every metre of drilling
carried out by Ptolemy in the Buen Retiro Project, including barren intervals (4,059 core samples to date).
The average weighted grade of all intersections is 0.59% Cu. Mineralisation has been identified along
approximately 4 km of strike, through a combination of diamond drilling, DTH drilling, and geophysical
interpretation. Very large geophysical anomalies remain untested at depth. Mineralisation is open at
depth and along strike to the north and to the south.
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Table 3. Drill core assay results summary and location, Buen Retiro Project
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Table 4. Drillhole collar coordinates, azimuth, dip, and depth
A significant north-east trend has been identified that is ready for step-out and down-dip drilling. The
trend is defined by multiple anomalies. Diamond drillhole BRT-DDH03 returned 110 m @ 0.23% Cu from
surface, and 21 m @ 0.41% Cu and 0.11 g/t Au, from 241 metres. In the vicinity, DTH drilling identified an
area at sub-surface grading 0.32% Cu that is open along trend. This trend alone can be followed for 1,300
m along a geomorphological topographic high, for 2,100 m on an IP feature, and for 2,700 m considering
magnetic anomalies (Figures 5 to 8).
The targets in this northern portion are Candelaria-style, open-pittable, stratigraphic occurrences, both
oxide and sulphide. In the central and southern zones, drilling intersections and geophysics highlight at
least 2,700 m of strike-length of structure with the potential to host mineralisation.
Copper Oxides and Sulphides
The depth to fresh rock at the Buen Retiro Project is over 100 m in zones of intense structural activity,
especially to the south of the historical open pit. To the north, where mineralisation exhibits a stronger
stratigraphic control and the intensity of faulting is less evident, the copper oxides extend down to a depth
of approximately 60 metres. Native copper is frequently observed at the base of oxidation, reflecting
supergene enrichment processes.
Oxide mineralogy is favourable to leaching. The minerals identified to date are dominantly tenorite,
chalcocite and native copper (Figures 9 and 10), with lesser chrysocolla and trace amounts of malachite
and azurite. Tenorite (CuO), and Chalcocite (CuS), are both minerals containing 80% Cu. Native copper is