Marimaca Announces 2024 Regional Exploration Strategy – Sierra de Medina
News Release
Marimaca Announces 2024 Regional Exploration Strategy – Sierra de Medina
Vancouver, British Columbia, February 26, 202 4 – Marimaca Copper Corp. (“Marimaca Copper” or the “Company”)
(TSX: MARI) is pleased to announce its regional exploration strategy for 2024 . Following a comprehensive review and
reinterpretation of historical geological information, the Company’s regional priority for 2024 will be further exploration at the
Sierra de Medina property block (“SdM”), located approximately 25km from the Marimaca Oxide Deposit (“MOD”). The
Company believes that the property position has discovery potential in an emerging belt of large scale manto -type copper
deposits in the Chilean Coastal Cordillera . SdM, along with the Marimaca -type satellite discoveries made in 2021 including
Mercedes, provide an organic exploration pipeline for Marimaca, which will be evaluated in parallel with the development of
the MOD.
Highlights
• Full geological review completed of Marimaca’s ~66,300ha land position in the Chilean coastal copper belt (Figure 1),
with a focus on historical information available at various targets across the SdM property block
o Marimaca established as a core land holder in the emerging discovery belt between Capstone’s Mantos Blancos
operation and Antofagasta Minerals’ new Cachorro discovery
• Presence of key regional mineralized units across the SdM property block confirmed via historic drilling and surface
geology:
o Results from Marimaca’s early 2024 surface sampling program identified a ~4km surface geochemical anomaly at the
Pias Target (Figure 3), which is supported by historical shallow drilling completed at the target:
▪ 32m at 2.36% Cu from surface in hole SHP-03*
▪ 30m at 1.69% CuT from 2m, including 12m at 3.97% CuT from 2m in hole SFP-02*
▪ 30m at 1.05% Cu from surface in hole SHP-04*
▪ 14m at 2.54% Cu from 2m in hole SHP-15*
▪ 16m at 1.84% Cu from 2m in hole SHP-17*
o Historic drilling at Pias was completed to an average depth of 68m without testing deeper volcanic and sedimentary
units known to be regionally productive
▪ Recent regional discoveries (such as Cachorro) demonstrate mineralization hosted dominantly in the
underlying lower sedimentary and volcanic units which provides a model for future exploration drilling at
depth at Pias
o Outcropping mineralized sediments at the Antena target confirmed via surface mapping
o Mineralized volcanic and sedimentary units confirmed in southern areas of the SdM claim block, indicating continuity
and regional extent of key productive units for copper mineralization
• The Company is currently considering funding options for additional work at the SdM property block, including
partnership and joint-venture opportunities
o Initial work plan would include geological mapping, resistivity and high-resolution drone-mounted magnetics
geophysics, followed by additional surface geochemistry to refine key targets for initial drilling
*The drill results reported in this news release are historical in nature and are the results from drilling
activities conducted by past operators and not Marimaca. As a result of the historic data having been
inherited by Marimaca, data verification, quality control and quality assurance measures that may have been
applied at the time is unknown. Marimaca is not treating these drill results as current and has not undertaken
any independent investigation, nor has it or a Qualified Person independently analy zed the historical drill
results to verify them. The Company believes that the historical drill results do not conform to the presently
accepted industry standards, are not considered to be current and should not be relied upon. Marimaca
considers these historical results relevant to assist with target definition for future exploration programs,
however readers are cautioned that there has been insufficient exploration to define any mineral resource
and it is uncertain whether further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.
Hayden Locke, President and CEO of Marimaca Copper, commented:
“While the MOD continues to advance toward production in partnership with Mitsubishi and Ausenco, we are extremely excited
about reigniting the exploration pipeline for Marimaca. Over the past 6 months, Sergio Rivera, VP Exploration, and his team
have completed a comprehensive review of the historical data, and the resulting reinterpretation paints a compelling story for
discovery potential, particularly at SdM.
We are well positioned as an early-mover in this emerging copper belt in Chile, which is bookended by the exceptional new
discovery, Cachorro, made by Antofagasta Minerals , and Mantos Blancos . Sediment-hosted manto-type deposits are a new
geological occurrence in Chile and we are excited about the application of the model at SdM. Sergio’s work to date has indicated
that the project hosts the core stratigraphy and geological markers, including evidence of copper oxide and sulphide
mineralization in both the regional volcanic and sedimentary units that extend onto our land position.
We are currently considering our strategy for advancing SdM, including partnership and joint -venture discussions to fund our
intended exploration program . We look forward to building out a strong exploration pipeline behind our flagship Marimaca
Oxide Deposit, leveraging the experience and expertise of the MOD discovery team.”
Figure 1: Marimaca Land Position
Geological Discussion - Sierra de Medina
The Chilean Coastal Cordillera can be divided into two domains – East and West – on either side of the major regional Atacama
Fault Zone (see Figure 2). The Western Domain, host to the MOD, is dominated by Mesozoic intrusive-hosted IOA and IOCG-
style deposits and volcanic hosted manto-type deposits, typically of smaller scale relative to deposits in the Eastern Domain.
The Eastern Domain, host to Mantos Blancos and Cachorro, is emerging as a prospective new belt for large -scale (>2Mt
contained Cu), manto-type copper deposits hosted in middle pyroclastic sequences (Mantos Blancos), and more recently in the
deeper mixed volcanic and metasedimentary units such as the deposit delineated at Cachorro. The SdM property block
(14,505ha), located in the Eastern Domain, is approximately 25km north -east of Marimaca and 8km to the south -east of
Cachorro (see Figures 1 and 2).
Historical exploration work at SdM focused on the shallow upper volcanic units (andesitic flows), which is in-line with the
exploration model at the time of drilling . Deeper, regionally extensive volcanic and sedimentary units, now know to be
productive for mineralization, remain untested at the Pias target given historical drilling focused on <100m drilling depth. Pias
has been designated as a priority for future exploration work given the presence of a large-scale surface geochemical anomaly
confirmed by Marimaca’s sampling (see Figures 3 and 4) and mineralized shallow historical drill intercepts in the upper volcanic
flows. Marimaca interprets the Pias copper mineralization as upper-level evidence of a mineralized system extending at depth
with the potential to become more favorable in the rock & structural extensions at depth.
Mineralized outcropping sediments in the northern Antena target (see Figure 5), provides strong evidence for continuity of
mineralization across the property package and into the sedimentary units, such as those found at Cachorro . Mineralization
encountered at Pias and Antena in historical drilling, surface sampling and in surface outcrop includes copper oxides dominated
by atacamite and chrysocolla, with underlying chalcocite-dominated sulphides.
Historical drilling on the property was complete d by Anglo American (Mantos Blancos) in the early 1990s and further
reconnaissance exploration was completed by Milpo in the late 2000s. A summary of historical data available is presented
below.
Marimaca is currently considering alternatives to fund an initial exploration campaign at the SdM property block which would
involve geophysical surveying and further surface geochemistry to delineate priority areas for follow -up exploration drilling.
The Company will update the market in due course as discussions progress.
Historical Data
Historical Exploration at the Pias target was completed periodically from the early 1990s to 2012:
• 1990-1992: Anglo American (Mantos Blancos) completed geological mapping, approximately 15km of surface
trenching, 9,900m of track-drill bedrock geochemistry across 1,200m holes, 1,300 rock chip and soil samples, and
7,548m of reverse-circulation drilling across 108 drill holes
• 1992-1993: Minera Tesoro completed 6 drill holes in the northern area of Pias target – no information available
• 2005-2012: Minera Rayrock (Milpo) completed geological mapping, ground magnetics, and extensions to Anglo’s
trench sampling with 10,000m new meters and 2,800 new rock chip samples
Figure 2: Regional Geological Setting
Figure 3: Sierra de Medina Property Block – Pias Target Geochemical Anomaly
Figure 4. Sierra de Medina Property Block – Pias Target Historical Drilling Locations
Figure 5. Copper-oxide bearing metasedimentary units exposed in outcrop and historical trenching at Antena Target
Table 1. Summary of Significant Intercepts from Historical Drilling (unverified) – Pias Target
Hole Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Intersect (m) %CuT
SFP-02 230 2 32 30 1.69
including 2 14 12 3.97
SFP-05 254 158 168 10 0.29
SFP-08 150 50 56 6 0.61
SFP-10 150 0 10 10 0.16
SFP-11 150 46 56 10 0.19
SFP-12 100 86 94 8 0.29
SFP-15 100 16 26 10 0.36
SFP-16 110 4 30 26 0.25
and 96 106 10 0.34
SFP-17 100 38 68 30 0.23
SFP-18 100 36 84 48 0.22
SFP-19 100 38 58 20 0.14
SFP-25 50 42 48 6 0.21
SFP-26 56 32 54 22 0.18
SFP-27 54 38 52 14 0.17
SFP-34 70 48 70 22 0.12
SFP-35 50 10 28 18 0.24