Ivanhoe Electric receives data from the 26.5 square kilometer proprietary Typhoon™ geophysical survey conducted at its Santa Cruz Copper Project in Arizona Resource expansion opportunities identified in five spectacular
September 15, 2022
Ivanhoe Electric receives data from the 26.5 square kilometer
proprietary Typhoon™ geophysical survey conducted at its Santa
Cruz Copper Project in Arizona
Resource expansion opportunities identified in five spectacular
Typhoon™ anomalies
Evidence of additional large sulphide systems detected
The open-ended Texaco deposit manifests as a large-scale anomaly
that is sparsely drilled
Ivanhoe Electric to immediately drill test Typhoon™ targets
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Ivanhoe Electric (NYSE American: IE; TSX: IE) Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer Robert Friedland and President Eric Finlayson are pleased to
announce preliminary results from the Typhoon™ geophysical survey work at its
flagship Santa Cruz Copper Project in Arizona.
The 26.5 km2 (6,500-acre) Typhoon™ 3D induced polarization and resistivity
geophysical survey was completed in late July 2022. Data inversions were completed by
Ivanhoe Electric’s 94%-owned advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence
business Computational Geosciences Inc.
Speaking at the Jefferies Green Metals Summit in New York today, Mr. Friedland noted
the importance of new copper discoveries in the United States and commented that:
“Ivanhoe Electric is well positioned to accelerate the clean energy transition by
providing a secure and green domestic source of copper. Copper is unquestionably a
critical metal providing both the foundational basis for economic growth and enabling
the electrification of everything.
“No geophysical survey technology, other than our proprietary Typhoon™ system,
could have imaged the Santa Cruz mineral system as rapidly or to as great a depth as
we have done. Additionally, no other data processing group has the same capability as
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Computational Geosciences to ‘invert’ or analyze the terabytes of data produced by
Typhoon™ as quickly.
“At Ivanhoe Electric we are seeking to re-invent mining through the use of our
proprietary exploration technology to identify future low-impact underground mines,
and then integrating best practice ESG and the use of renewable energy in developing
and operating them. We are doing this on private land in the U.S, which positions us
well to supply the U.S. with critical electric metals.”
Proprietary Typhoon™ technology identifies multiple large-scale anomalies
at Santa Cruz
Based on the interpretation of preliminary data, Ivanhoe Electric’s geologists and
geophysicists have identified multiple large-scale anomalies, which may indicate the
potential to expand the currently known copper oxide and sulphide mineralization at
Santa Cruz.
The geophysical work, comprising induced polarization and resistivity surveys covering
a 26.5 km2 (6,500-acre) area, identified several high-priority exploration targets.
Preliminary Typhoon™ data illustrates large-scale chargeability anomalies
across the main northeast-southwest regional trend. Typhoon has clearly imaged
areas of known mineralization as well as areas for future exploration.
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Plan map of the Santa Cruz Project area showing the location of the Santa Cruz
deposit and the Texaco and Park Salyer exploration areas. Santa Cruz is
currently the largest copper deposit in the cluster.
Key Typhoon™ targets include:
1. Far Southwest Anomaly: Located to the southwest of the main Santa Cruz
deposit, an 800 x 1000 meter (0.5 x 0.6 mile) chargeable body is situated in an
ideal position for reflecting another potential mineralized fault block of the Santa
Cruz system;
2. East Ridge: Abundant geological evidence, including nearby mineralized holes,
indicates a target offset by a fault from the known Santa Cruz deposit;
3. Texaco and Texaco Ridge: A very large chargeable zone is indicative of sulphide
mineralization. Texaco is only very sparsely drilled and there is potential for
enriched oxide mineralization peripheral to the chargeable zone;
4. Northwest Anomaly: This is a large chargeability anomaly located northwest of
the main Santa Cruz deposit; and
5. Southeast Anomaly: This is a smaller chargeability anomaly indicating potential
for a parallel mineralized trend.
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Typhoon™ sees what other technologies cannot – discovering deposits
otherwise thought to be undetectable through conventional survey methods and
technology
Ivanhoe Electric’s proprietary Typhoon™ system at Santa Cruz.
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The Santa Cruz in-fill drill program continues to expand understanding of this
significant copper deposit
An attractive feature of the Santa Cruz Mineral Resource Estimate is the amount of
metal at higher cut-off grades. This higher-grade material tends to be in the leachable
copper categories, potentially allowing for a low-impact, underground mining operation
utilizing lower cost, lower energy and lower water-consuming processing methods.
At a 0.39% copper cut-off grade, the current mineral resource contains 2.5 million
tonnes of copper in the Indicated category with an average grade of 0.9% copper, and
2.3 million tonnes of copper in the Inferred category with an average grade of 0.9%
copper. However, when a 1% copper cut-off grade is applied, Santa Cruz maintains
nearly 60% of its contained metal, with 1.4 million tonnes of copper in the Indicated
category at an average grade of 1.7% copper and 1.4 million tonnes of copper in the
Inferred category at an average grade of 1.9% copper.
Eight drill rigs are currently operating (6 diamond drill rigs, 1 reverse circulation rig and
1 sonic drill rig) to in-fill and expand the Santa Cruz deposit. The 75,000-meter in-fill
drilling program is more than 66% complete, with 49,290 meters completed year to date.
We are fortunate to have an excellent crew on site including 31 employees and more
than 60 contractors.
Although not yet complete, this drill program has provided a better understanding of
the mineralized areas of Santa Cruz, as well as future areas of focus, including
increased delineation of the high-grade Exotic and Oxide/Enriched zones. Ivanhoe
Electric plans to update the mineral resource estimate after the completion of the
current drilling program. Assays are currently pending and will be reported when
available.
Program emphasis is on the larger, higher-grade portions of the deposit, which appear
to have sufficient dimensions to support various bulk underground mining methods.
While many sample assays are still pending, mineralization encountered to date shows
a strong correlation with the mineral resource block model.
Additional program objectives include drilling outside of the current resource footprint
to test areas where mineralization remains open, obtaining large-diameter drill core for
geotechnical and metallurgical test work, and geotechnical drilling on potential ramp
and shaft access locations.
The Texaco copper discovery is the second-largest body of mineralization
known at the Santa Cruz Project
The Texaco copper discovery is located 3.5 kilometers northeast of the Santa Cruz
deposit. Historical and Ivanhoe Electric drilling have confirmed that the deposit remains
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open, that supergene copper mineralization is sulphide-dominated, and that there are
indications of underlying high-grade hypogene mineralization.
The Texaco exploration target conceptually includes 150 to 200 million tonnes of
mineralized material with a target grade of 0.7% to 1.5% total copper. The Texaco
exploration target is based on 23,848 meters of core from historical drilling, three drill
holes completed by Ivanhoe Electric and the results of the recent Typhoon™ survey.
Additional drilling is planned to test and determine the extent of the Texaco target.
It is noted however that the range of potential tonnes and grade of the Texaco
exploration target are conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to
estimate a current mineral resource. Ivanhoe Electric cannot provide assurances that
further exploration will result in the estimation of a mineral resource and as such, the
Texaco exploration target does not represent, and should not be construed to be, an
estimate of a mineral resource. The range of tonnes and grade could change as
additional drilling is completed. It is anticipated that a thorough exploration program
may be completed before the end of 2023.
World-renowned geologist David Lowell discovered the Santa Cruz copper
deposit immediately before discovering Escondida in Chile – now the world’s
largest copper mine
In the early 1970’s world-renowned geologist David Lowell led an extensive exploration
program covering much of southwestern Arizona.
After drilling over 120 holes at 20 projects across southwestern Arizona, Lowell and his
team focused their attention on what they called “the Covered Area Project”, now
known as Santa Cruz.
Lowell was aware of the evidence for shallow-angle faulting and the potential for fault-
dismembered porphyry mineralization under cover in the Casa Grande valley.
Careful stream mapping and drainage analysis revealed that the Santa Cruz River had
reversed flow directions at least twice in recent history, and it was this revelation that
allowed Lowell to trace oxide copper pebbles found in water wells back to the Santa
Cruz deposit area.
Lowell discovered evidence for porphyry mineralization in the first drill hole, which
intersected leached capping, and by the seventh hole had intersected ore-grade
supergene-enriched copper mineralization at what would be called the Casa Grande
West deposit, now known as the Santa Cruz deposit.
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Drilling continued through to 1977, at which point M.A. Hanna Mining of Cleveland, OH
(“Hanna”) took over as operator under a joint venture with Getty Oil Corp. of New York,
NY (“Getty”). Between 1977 and 1982, Hanna-Getty advanced a tightly-spaced drill
program over Casa Grande West and in the surrounding Casa Grande valley. The fall of
copper prices resulted in the Casa Grande West project becoming inactive in the early
1980’s.
Several other deposits, including Santa Cruz North, Texaco and Park Salyer, were
identified by ASARCO drilling in the 1960’s and subsequent drilling in the 1970’s and
1980’s by numerous exploration companies. In total, 362 drill holes totaling 229,577
meters have been drilled by previous owners to delineate the cluster of deposits.
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Secondary enriched mineralization forms a high-grade copper oxide “blanket”
over the deposits at Santa Cruz
Chrysocolla and atacamite mineralization from drill hole SCC-057 at 642 meters
(assays pending), a newly drilled infill hole at the Santa Cruz deposit.
Atacamite is a blueish-green, leachable copper-chloride mineral which is 60% copper by
weight. Chrysocolla is a bright blue, leachable copper oxide mineral which is 34%
copper by weight. These leachable minerals are amenable to a solvent
extraction/electrowinning (“SX/EW”) process allowing for direct copper cathode
production.