Carnival eyes Philippine property

Under an agreement that is still subject to a due diligence review, Carnival Resource (CNE-V) can acquire a private company that holds rights to a mineral property in the San Fabian area of the Philippines.

The property covers a large copper-gold porphyry system that was drilled by previous operators in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The porphyry system is reported to be at least 1,500 metres long and 400 metres wide. An underlying primary sulphide system is estimated to contain a resource of 263 million tonnes grading an average of 0.27% copper and 0.2 gram gold per tonne.

This system is covered by a deeply oxidized cap believed to grade between 0.6% to 0.7% copper and 0.22 gram gold. Tonnage estimates vary from 16 million tonnes to 60 million tonnes at a cutoff grade of 0.2% copper. The oxide cap is considered a potentially valuable resource, given that it may be suited to recovery using solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) technology.

The property is served by power and roads, and has land available for tailings and leach-pad sites. A 3-phase program has been recommended to determine the property’s suitability for an SX-EW cathode copper operation.