Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO) is seeing similarities to copper-gold mineralisation previously exploited along the 3km structure within its Fortuna Project in Chile.
The company says its phase-one trenching program at the El Quillay South Prospect has returned thick copper and gold assays from surface, including 46m @ 1% copper and 1.31 grams per tonne gold – or 0.90% copper equivalent.
Other top results included 6m at 3.21% copper equivalent, 20m @ 0.51%, 6m @ 1.43% and 3m @ 1.72%.
Shares advanced 16.7% to $0.035 following the news.
Managing Director Max Tuesley says the results trenching at El Quillay is ongoing, with a further 1.5km underway, to rapidly define drill targets and extend mineralisation, which is open to the south.
“The strong correlation of these trench results with mineralisation previously exploited along the 3km El Quillay structure demonstrates the significant strike extent of this well mineralised system,” he says.
Four trenches have now been completed at the El Quillay South Prospect, with results for 166 samples collected having been received.
Culpeo is also in the process of completing a litho-geochemistry survey at the La Florida Prospect, site clearance at the Vista Montana Prospect, and reconnaissance exploration of high-priority areas within the Fortuna Project.
The company, which has a market capitalisation of $6.1 million, is focused on uncovering “high-grade” copper systems in Chile’s Coastal Cordillera.
Culpeo’s Fortuna and Lana Corina projects are located in Chile’s Coquimbo region, one of the top copper producing regions of the South American country.
The company made a recent copper-molybdenum discovery at the Lana Corina Project, with drill results from a 13-hole program returning intercepts including 257m @ 1.10% copper equivalent from 170m.
Since early August the copper price on the London Metal Exchange has advanced nearly 14% to US$9,979 ($14,497) a tonne as missed production targets, strike action, US interest rate cuts and China’s promise of fiscal stimulus impacted the market.
BHP (ASX:BHP) says while “traditional” growth in developing countries is expected to underpin copper demand upside, the clean energy transition remains a key source of upside for copper beyond the traditional levers.
“As the energy transition unfolds, we anticipate the roll-out of EVs to lift the transport sector’s share of total copper demand from around 11% in 2021, to over 20% by 2040,” the mining giant says.
Data centres will be another source of solid copper demand growth, due to their intensive need for power and cooling. BHP expects global electricity consumption for data centres to rise from around 2% of global demand today, to 9% by 2050, with copper demand in data centres increasing six-fold by 2050.
“Putting all these levers together, we project global copper demand to grow by around 70% to over 50Mt per annum by 2050 – an average growth rate of 2% per year,“ BHP notes.
Several copper explorers, including Culpeo, will be taking to the stage at the Noosa Mining Conference, which is being held from 13-15 November 2024 at Peppers Noosa Resort. Click here to register.
Mining.com.au is a media partner of this year’s event.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Culpeo Minerals
