Gitennes deals Rio Blanco (August 15, 2001)

Vancouver — London-based Monterrico Metals has inked a deal with Gitennes Exploration (GIT-T) to earn up to a 75% stake in the Rio Blanco copper property in northern Peru.

Under the terms of the deal, Monterrico must spend US$4 million over five years. First-year commitments will hit US$75,000.

Rio Blanco hosts one drill-outlined copper deposit and eight separate, untested targets.

Cyprus Antacori, which is now part of Phelps Dodge (PD-N), drilled Rio Blanco in 1997 and 1998 and completed metallurgical and environmental studies. Gitennes picked up the property in 1999 through a deal with Australian miner Newcrest Mining.

The main copper porphyry target has been intersected by 18 drill holes over an area measuring 1.3 km by 1.8 km and to a depth of 400 metres.

The prospect is the sub-horizontal layer of secondary enriched copper lying above a primary zone of mineralization.

A 1998 inferred resource came in at 50 million tonnes grading 1.04% oxide copper, with 53 million tonnes grading 0.48% copper in the transition zone. The primary copper resource is pegged at 200 million tonnes grading 0.54% copper.

Monterrico aims to target the surrounding untested copper-gold targets with a sampling and mapping program.