Consistent copper and gold values at La Fortuna

Drill results from the La Fortuna copper-gold deposit bode well for the updated resource estimate due out in the third quarter from Metallica Resources‘ (MR-T) and joint-venture partner Noranda‘s (NRD-T) El Morro project, 80 km east of Vallenar, in north-central Chile.

Results from the final ten holes of a 23-hole drill program are highlighted by three holes, which cut a secondary enrichment zone followed by primary mineralization:

• hole F-61 — cut 68 metres grading 2.05% copper and 0.94 gram gold followed by 302 metres grading 0.78% copper and 1.23 grams gold;
• hole F-64 — intersected 56 metres grading 1.58% copper and 0.60 gram gold followed by 195 metres grading 0.53% copper and 0.70 gram gold; and
• hole F-67 — hit 90 metres grading 1.45% copper and 0.69 gram gold followed by 86 metres grading 0.66% copper and 1 gram gold per tonne.

Four other holes cut 34-62 metres of secondary enrichment grading as high as 1.08-1.71% copper, and 0.3-0.77 gram gold, and three other holes cut primary mineralization 94-332 metres wide grading as high as 0.51-0.82% copper and 0.51-0.77 gram gold per tonne.

The drill holes averaged 410 metres in depth.

To date 68 holes, totalling about 30,000 metres, have tested the resource at an average 100-metre spacing.

In 2002, Noranda estimated La Fortuna contained an inferred resource of 465 million tonnes grading 0.61% copper and 0.5 gram gold per tonne at a cutoff of 0.4% copper. Included in that resource were 103 million tonnes of supergene mineralization grading 0.71% copper and 0.35 gram gold.

Metallica recalculated the aforementioned resource using a 0.4% copper-equivalent cutoff, at a copper price of US90 and a gold price of US$375 per oz.; the inferred resource totalled 641 million tonnes grading 0.53% copper and 0.46 gram gold per tonne.

Noranda is earning a 70% interest in the 236-sq.-km El Morro project.