Belararox (ASX:BRX) is actively pursuing finance options for its Toro-Malambo-Tambo (TMT) Project situated within Argentina’s San Juan Province, with several majors in the region expressing interest.
Speaking to Mining.com.au on the sidelines of the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie today (6 August 2024), Exploration Director Jason Ward says TMT could be a company maker in a region rated by the Fraser Institute as the best mining province in Latin America.
All options for funding the project are on the table, including a potential joint venture with a major, he says.
“Obviously, Chile being the biggest copper producer in the world, Argentina having close to zero copper production at this point. But there’s five giant porphyries in San Juan, well known, over a billion tonnes, and we’re looking to find the next one,” Ward tells this news service.
“We have a pretty much unexplored project. It’s called the TMT Project. I first saw it about 20 years ago – I always thought that it’s related to a porphyry and possibly at Malambo, which is about 10 kilometres north.
“In the last couple of years, we managed to consolidate the three project areas, Tauro, Malambo, and Tambo. We have about 320 square kilometres. Tauro has had 22 drillholes, and we found strong epithermal mineralisation. Last field season, we went in on the ground and we did a lot of the first systematic geochemical sampling and mapping ever undertaken. We confirmed that they are porphyries.”
A 6,000m drilling program will be starting in about October or November. Ward says various remote sensing studies and satellite interpretation have already highlighted alteration assemblages typical of porphyry deposits or the upper levels of porphyry deposits, similar to Filo del Sol’s (TSX:FIL) alteration assemblage.
Filo del Sol is a composite porphyry-epithermal deposit, straddling the frontier between Argentina and Chile. The company has reported several drill intersections in excess of 1km long with high copper, gold, and silver grades.
The $21.73 million market capitalisation company recently reported assay results from rock chip and talus samples at the Tambo South target, and geological mapping confirmed a second porphyry system at the TMT project.
“Porphyries are pretty much the biggest prize on the planet. If you find a big porphyry system – 60% of the world’s copper production comes from porphyries,” Ward tells Mining.com.au.
“They’re also gold-rich in this part of the world. There are multi-generational mines in this region, if you find one, they can be company makers. There’s only one way to do it – to find them, to do all the work we’re doing at the moment, then drill test them.”
Highlights from recent works at TMT include a large molybdenum anomaly (>6 ppm) spanning 600m by 450m, with the highest surface values of 5,642ppm copper, 0.26 ppm gold, 44ppm Ag, 86ppm molybdenum, 355ppm zinc, and 2,330ppm lead. Tambo South is a priority drill target, adding to the Malambo porphyry and Toro epithermal targets. 3D interpretations suggest a significant porphyry target 700m beneath the surface.
The Toro-Malambo-Tambo Project occupies an unexplored area between the prolifically mineralised El Indio and Maricunga Metallogenic Belts. Belararox has already identified numerous promising targets within the TMT project. These targets are set to undergo thorough exploration as part of an extensive program led by an experienced Belararox team that is currently present on-site in Argentina.
According to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ (DISR) latest issue of its Resources and Energy Quarterly: June 2024, copper prices have continued to trend higher in recent months, averaging about US$9,700 ($14,898) a tonne in the June quarter — up 14% since the start of 2024.
The price surge reflects strong growth in global demand, which DISR expects to largely persist over H2 2024. LME copper prices are forecast to average about US$9,500 a tonne in 2024 (up from US$8,700 in 2023), rising to US$9,970 in 2026.
Global copper consumption is forecast to grow by about 2.1% this year. China and the US will account for the bulk of this growth, driven by rising manufacturing activity and large investment in energy infrastructure.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Belararox
