Marimaca hits fresh 13-year high on copper results

Marimaca Copper (TSX: MARI; ASX: MC2) surged to its highest level in more than 13 years after the company said new drilling at its Pampa Medina property in northern Chile expanded the size of the ore body.

Hole SMRD-16 cut 70 metres grading 1% copper from 434 metres downhole, including 10 metres of 4.2% copper from 438 metres depth, Marimaca said Friday in a statement. It also extended the high-grade sediment-hosted manto-system by 300 metres to the west from previous drilling. Another hole, SMRD-15, intersected 42 metres of 0.51% copper from 158 metres.

“Today’s results further demonstrate the longer-term potential of Pampa Medina as the company continues to expand the size of the defined area where they see high-grade mineralization,” National Bank Financial mining analyst Andrew Dusome said Friday in a note. He gives an “outperform” rating to Marimaca shares.

Marimaca stock soared about 13% to $11.16 in trading Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, its highest closing level since March 2012. Marimaca now has a market capitalization of about $1.2 billion.

It’s the second time in about six weeks that Marimaca has spurred investor enthusiasm by disclosing high-grade copper hits at Pampa Medina. The project is about 25 km west of the company’s main Marimaca Oxide Deposit (MOD) and 1,250 km north of the Chilean capital Santiago.

The results are part of a 10,000-metre drilling program that the Vancouver-based miner is carrying out with three rigs. As mineralization remains open, extensional drilling will now focus on the north and west, the company said. Crews are targeting mineralized intersections with true widths exceeding 20 metres at an average copper grade of 1% or more, CEO Hayden Locke said.

“We see enormous potential for a large scale, highly economic, underground copper mining opportunity,” Locke said in Friday’s statement.

A definitive feasibility study for MOD, expected for the fourth quarter, should pave the way for the construction of a 50,000-tonne-per-year copper cathode mine “in the near term”, Locke says.

Other drilling highlights released Friday included hole SMRD-13, which cut 6 metres of 12% copper from 594 metres downhole, including 26 metres of 4.1% copper from 580 metres depth. SMRD-13 sits 300 metres west of SMRD-15.

Pampa Medina is located at low altitude in a flat pampa valley within the Atacama Desert. It’s also close to existing powerlines, water pipelines and major ports.

Other nearby projects include Capstone Copper’s (TSX: CS; ASX: CSC) Mantos Blancos project, which is 40 km away; Antofagasta’s (LSE: ANTO) Antucoya project, 54 km away; and BHP’s (ASX, NYSE, LSE: BHP) Spence project, 77 km away.