Cominco Res. steps up exploration

Exploration by Cominco Resources International (VSE) in 1993 will include more than $15 million in expenditures under company control.

Of that total, the company’s net cost is about $5.7 million. Although exploration is slated for the U.S. and Mexico, efforts will be concentrated in Chile and Turkey.

Last year, Cominco Resources formed a 3-year Chilean joint venture with Cominco (TSE) and Teck (TSE) to identify large, good-grade copper deposits in the multi-hundred-million-tonne range. The joint venture is the principal exploration arm in Chile of all three companies.

Cominco and Teck funded the first $1.5 million in expenditures under the agreement and the group now holds more than 40 properties, covering nearly 4,000 square km, in northern Chile.

Cominco Resources also brought previously acquired copper prospects into the joint venture, so it and Teck are required to undertake additional expenditures to earn their one-third interests.

One of the options covers the company’s large land holdings around the Cerro Negro copper project. The project belongs to Chilean government-owned ENAMI. Cominco and Teck must jointly spend US$2 million to acquire a combined two-thirds interest in Cerro Negro. Airborne geophysics and ground geochemical surveying in 1992 outlined promising targets for drill-testing this year.

Drilling is also planned on the Copaquire property, west of the Quebrada Blanca project owned 38.25% by Cominco, 29.25% by Teck, 9% by Cominco Resources, 10% by ENAMI and 13.5% by Sociedad Mineral Pudahuel. Copaquire has never effectively been explored for copper and the company believes an enriched blanket of copper mineralization could be present under the leached cap of a large alteration system identified on surface. Results from initial drilling are expected in the next few months. In total, the joint venture expects to spend more than $7 million in Chile this year with Cominco Resources contributing only $1.7 million to maintain its one-third interest.

Cominco is funding exploration of Cominco Resources’ extensive land holdings in northeastern Turkey. Cominco can earn a 35% interest in the land base (excluding the developing Cerattepe project) by spending $6.5 million by the end of 1994. At the end of 1992, Cominco had spent $2.5 million. Trenching and drilling last year at the Akasar property traced the source of numerous gold and base metal-mineralized boulders. One hole intersected the bedrock source of the boulders, returning an average grade of 4% copper, 6% zinc, 6% lead, seven grams gold and 1,500 grams silver per tonne over a one-metre width. Additional work is planned this year to search for greater thicknesses of massive sulphides along the mineralized horizon. At the Siyle property, about 12 km northeast of Akasar, similar work is planned to track the source of high-grade copper-gold values in boulders. In addition to the Akasar and Siyle properties, the joint venture has accumulated 55 other high-priority targets.