Duran’s Aguila project takes shape

Duran Ventures (DRV-V) has received a maiden resource estimate for its Aguila copper-molybdenum  porphyry project in Peru’s north-central Ancash district.

Total indicated resources came in at 28 million tonnes grading 0.61% copper and 0.04% moly, for 374.5 million lbs. copper and 22 million lbs. moly.

Inferred resources came in at 356 million tonnes grading 0.27% copper and 0.02% moly for 2.14 billion lbs. copper and 166.2 million lbs. moly.

The company has also broken the resource into open-pit and underground categories. Open-pit resources contain 374.5 million lbs. copper in the indicated category, and 1.74 billion lbs. in the inferred. So far the project holds inferred underground resources totalling 394.2 million lbs. of the red metal.

The Aguila project is located 40 km south of the Magistral copper deposit operated by the Peruvian Milpo mining group and 120 km north of  the Antamina mine — Peru’s largest polymetallic mine. The latter is run as a joint venture between BHP Billiton (BHP-N),  Xstrata (XTA-L), Teck Resources (TCK.B-T, TCK-N) and Japan’s Mitsubishi.

Duran’s wholly owned property stretches more than 11 sq. km and covers the Aguila and Pasacancha past-producing mines. 

Initial resource calculations focused on the project’s Central zone, which remains open to the east, west-northwest and down the plunge of the intrusive to depth.

The company says the newly outlined deposit could be just the beginning at Aguila. It notes that near-term drilling could expand the resource and test property targets that have not yet been drilled.

Duran has found copper-mineralized intrusive rocks and porphyry-style alteration west of the Central zone, with known silver,  zinc and lead mineralization 2 km to the east at the historic Pasacancha mine.

While the size of the initial resource estimate is encouraging, there are also good preliminary metallurgical results that  show the copper and moly mineralization is amenable to standard floatation processing, with good recoveries and no deleterious elements. 

Duran is targeting engineering studies later this year.

Duran has 183.5 million shares outstanding. Its share price has fluctuated between 12¢ and 43¢ over the last 52-week period.