BASE METALS SPECIAL — Summo gears up to drill Champion

Up to 50 holes will be drilled on the Champion copper oxide property in north-central New Mexico.

Summo Minerals (SMA-T) intends to test the open extension of a new oxide zone, which lies north of a drill-indicated resource of 18 million tons grading 0.4% copper.

The new zone was discovered late last year by a preliminary 10-hole program completed on a 150-by-200-ft. grid. Seven of the holes averaged a near-surface thickness of 200 ft. grading 0.37% copper, based on a cutoff of 0.1% copper.

The new zone is open along strike to the northeast and coincides with a copper soil anomaly that extends over a strike length of 2,500 ft.

Summo will carry out column leach testing on the oxide ore to establish recovery curves for various crush sizes. Also planned are baseline environmental studies.