General Minerals (GNM-T) has expanded the area of known mineralization at its Escalones copper porphyry target in Chile, and hit promising precious metal values at a new target in Peru.
At Escalones, General has identified a 3-km geophysical anomaly that underlies the expanded area of copper mineralization and associated hydrothermal alteration exposed at the surface. The anomaly remains open in two directions. Recent bulldozer trenching and geologic mapping determined that skarn mineralization lies peripheral to leached, intensely hydrofractured intrusive rock. Leaching of cap rocks and the presence of native copper points to the potential for a blanket of chalcocite mineralization below the surface.
The 75-sq.-km property is primarily a copper-gold skarn/porphyry prospect situated in the central Chilean copper belt, 35 km east of the El Teniente copper mine.
The company was scheduled to begin drilling at Escalones by the end of March, but snow and bad weather at the property (at an altitude of about 4,000 metres) has hampered efforts.
Elsewhere in Chile, Boliden (BOL-T) is halfway through an 8,000-metre drilling program on General’s Vizcachitas copper property in order to identify the limits of the higher grade, secondary enrichment copper mineralization. General had teamed up with Westmin Resources (WMI-T) at Vizcachitas last October, shortly before Westmin was taken over by Boliden.
In northern Peru, General recently completed 12 reverse-circulation holes (totalling 2,940 metres) on the Ururupa gold project, following-up a geophysical survey done in 1997. Only anomalous precious metals values were encountered; hole UP-12 hit 224 metres grading 0.19 gram gold per tonne starting from surface, including 14 metres grading 0.4 gram gold and 36 grams silver per tonne. Other holes had similarly long intervals of anomalous gold, as well as some silver, lead and zinc.
General President Ralph Fitch concedes that this is not ore-grade material, but he believes it demonstrates the need for further drilling.
General is also exploring for copper-gold deposits spatially associated with magnetite in Chile’s Iron belt. The company plans drilling at its Productura property during the third quarter of the year, following mapping, sampling and geophysical surveying. Fitch said it has taken General four years to put the Productura land package together, and now the company is in a position to get a handle on the property’s potential. To date, its has discovered a 5-km-by-3-km alteration area that has the potential to host a porphyry copper deposit. However, because of its location in the Iron belt, the property also contains anomalous gold, molybdenum, cobalt and uranium values.
In related news, General Minerals has decided to drop the Azurita sedimentary copper prospect in Bolivia and the Berenguela gold-silver prospect in northern Chile. These moves, plus its shedding of several other land holdings in recent months, are expected to save General $1.5 million in land payments and related costs in 1998.
The HSG copper-gold project in Sichuan province, China, has been a disappointment for General. The first phase of drilling and tunnelling outlined a resource of just 1.27 million tonnes averaging 2.98 grams gold, 42 grams silver per tonne and 1% copper. However, Fitch is optimistic that the company can use the project as a “foundation” to acquire new projects in China. To that end, the company has begun negotiations with its Chinese joint-venture partner on HSG for five more gold properties totalling 300 sq.
km. Currently, two letters of intent and joint-venture agreements await governmental approval.
Be the first to comment on "LATIN AMERICA — General Minerals expands size of Chilean porphyry, prepares for coming year"