Emerita’s copper-gold results expand deposit to west

Drilling by Emerita Resources (TSX-V: EMO; US-OTC: EMOTF) at its El Cura deposit in southwest Spain continues to encounter high copper-gold grades that expand the deposit to the west in its larger Iberian Belt West (IBW) project.

Highlight hole EC072 cut 9.6 metres grading 2.7% copper, 0.4% lead, 0.5% zinc, 1.85 grams gold per tonne and 27.08 grams silver from 335 metres depth, Emerita reported Friday. That hole extended the thick gold-copper zone found in the previously drilled hole EC046 by 35 metres to the west.

Hole EC079, which was aimed at delineating the upper portion of the resource, returned 6.9 metres at 1.4% copper, 0.9% lead, 2.4% zinc, 1.32 grams gold and 48.22 grams silver from 279 metres depth. And hole EC082 returned 5.5 metres grading 0.6% copper, 0.3% lead, 0.6% zinc, 0.63 gram gold and 15.55 grams silver from 308 metres depth.

All holes reported in the latest set intercepted massive and semi-massive sulphide, Emerita said.

Extended drill program

The latest intersections build on results from August that the company said could add significant gold and copper tonnage to the IBW project, which is located near the border with Portugal, about 144 km west of Seville. The strong results reported up until August spurred Emerita to approve another 10,000 metres of drilling at El Cura, intended to convert inferred resources to indicated.

In May, Emerita released an updated resource for IBW that boosted indicated tonnage by 35% over the initial resource from 2023.

IBW, consisting of the El Cura, La Romanera and La Infanta targets, sits on the Iberian Pyrite belt, known for numerous prolific volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits that have over centuries produced millions of tonnes of copper, zinc, silver and lead.

Project’s ‘strategic interest’

In July last year, the regional Andalusian government granted IBW strategic interest status which is expected to accelerate environmental reviews and economic initiatives.

IBW hosts 18.9 million indicated tonnes grading 2.8% zinc, 1.42% lead, 0.5% copper, 1.28 grams gold and 66 grams silver for 547,000 tonnes of contained zinc, 269,000 tonnes lead, 94,000 tonnes of copper, 783,000 oz. gold and 40.2 million oz. silver, according to this year’s update.

Inferred resources total 6.8 million tonnes at 3.25% zinc, 1.5% lead, 0.73% copper, 0.77 gram gold and 56.3 grams silver for 221,000 tonnes zinc, 102,000 tonnes lead, 49,000 tonnes copper, 168,000 oz. gold and 12.3 million oz. silver.

IBW is mid-sized in relation to other European polymetallic projects but it hosts higher grade copper and gold compared to Boliden’s (STO: BOL) Zinkgruvan project in Sweden and is competitive on grade with that company’s Neves-Corvo site in Portugal.

Emerita shares fell 0.7% to $1.29 apiece on Friday morning in Toronto, for a market capitalization of $373.4 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of 56¢ to $2.