Southern Hemisphere Mining (ASX:SUH) has confirmed and added gold to the new Southern porphyry target in the south of the Llahuin Project in Chile.
The company has confirmed an oblong copper-gold in soil anomaly with a footprint similar to the Central Porphyry and shows a robust +500ppm copper in soil contour with a peak value of 0.22% (2,232ppm) copper in soil.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Non-Executive Chairman Mark Stowell says the company has now completed up to 60,000m of drilling to date and Southern Hemisphere Mining is looking to expand that substantially.
Stowell says recent copper infill sampling completed at the project has encountered gold mineralisation, representing ‘significant’ potential in terms of finding and drilling new targets.
The non-executive chairman says these targets represent stepping stones in its pathway of turning the project into a ‘very big’ copper mine. They will ultimately paint the picture to any major copper producer that this is the type of project that it would be interested in.
“We have completed 60,000m of drilling on [Llahuin] to date and we are looking to expand that substantially. This work we have defined represents ‘significant’ potential add on in terms of finding drill targets and then drilling them.
“We are looking to attract a major copper producer into the project and these are the stepping stones that are required to do that”
The targets are the stepping stones to turning this into a very big copper mine ultimately. We are looking to attract a major copper producer into the project and these are the stepping stones that are required to do that. This, as well as relogging a lot of the old core, getting shallow and deep targets analysed will paint the picture that this is the type of project that a major copper producer would be interested in.”
Stowell adds the recent results returned from sampling indicate the presence of a copper-gold porphyry target. The copper grades within the geochemical anomaly are ‘significant’ and point to a higher level of confidence that this copper-gold porphyry target exists, he says.
“The results mean that there is a copper-gold porphyry target, which reinforces the magnetic signature and has some scale to it. The magnetic feature is very substantial and these results are a portion of that. We are doing further work on that massive target at Southern Porphyry.
These copper results up to .22% would be included in a resource model if it was within drilling. To get these sorts of grades within a geochemical anomaly are significant and points to a higher level of confidence there is an ore body underneath. Combine that with gold grades…it provides further confidence again that a copper porphyry, copper-gold porphyry exists and having the gold credits in there evaluates the product that could be found there.
We are also working on a number of new coppe targets as we speak in the area, and will report those as the results come through and start showing some decent targets.”
Southern Hemisphere Mining notes the footprint of the aforementioned anomaly is similar to that seen within the Central Porphyry and demonstrates a robust +500 parts per million (ppm) copper in soil contour that extends about 200m in a north-northwest direction.
Infill soil samples were gathered on 100m spaced sample lines across a 25m sample spacing, and were analysed by an Olympus Vanta “M Series” Pxrf. The results, in comparison with 210 laboratory copper analyses, displayed ‘excellent’ agreement with an R2 value of 0.99.
Southern Hemisphere Mining is an ASX-listed experienced minerals explorer based in Chile that is actively working to advance its Llahuin project, as well as its Los Pumas Manganese Project, where work completed to date has demonstrated the project is optimum to produce battery-grade manganese-type purity.
Images: Southern Hemisphere Mining Ltd
