Pampa Metals (CSE: PM; US-OTC: PMMCF) announced Wednesday the discovery of a new porphyry copper-gold breccia system at Piuquenes East in San Juan, northwest Argentina.
Drill hole PIU-06 cut 98 metres at 0.49% copper and 0.16 grams gold per tonne, confirming the system is mineralized, the company said. The project is roughly 190 km west of the regional capital San Juan.
“To have returned such significant results from the first hole into the Piuquenes East discovery is an important milestone for Pampa Metals,” president and CEO Joseph van den Elsen said in a release. “It validates the Piuquenes project as host to multiple porphyry systems and a company-making asset.”
Piuquenes East is just north of Aldebaran Resources’ (TSXV: ALDE, OTCQX: ADBRF) Altar North system. It is part of the Piuquenes–Altar cluster in the San Juan Miocene porphyry belt. The region includes El Pachón, Los Pelambres, and Los Azules. Companies like Rio Tinto (NYSE, LSE, ASX: RIO), South32 (ASX: S32), BHP (NYSE, LSE, ASX: BHP), Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) and McEwen Mining (NYSE, TSX: MUX) are active here.
Toronto-quoted shares in the company were flat by midday Wednesday at 14¢ apiece, having tested a range of 13¢ to 36.5¢ over the past 12 months.
Open-ended
The discovery hole, located 800 metres east of the Piuquenes Central deposit, revealed 208 metres of mineralization. It showed 0.31% copper and 0.13 grams gold from a depth of 292 metres. This result includes the higher-grade 98-metre interval mentioned earlier. The hole cut quartz stockwork veining from 50 metres downhole to 680 metres.
Piuquenes East remains open to the north, west and east across the company’s 25 sq. km of claims, underlining the project’s scale and potential for further discovery, the company said.
Pampa explains the mineralization as quartz stockwork veining that alternates with chlorite-sericite-smectite and sericite-pyrite alteration. Additionally, argillic alteration overlaps, featuring vein-hosted chalcopyrite and chalcocite. Alteration mapping confirms biotite-dominated potassic alteration at depth.
The company announced plans for geological mapping and geophysical surveys. They will also drill to test extensions north, west and east of Piuquenes East.
Rugby acquisition
Pampa is moving forward with its acquisition of Rugby Resources (TSXV: RUG). It will offer one Pampa share for every 6.4 Rugby shares. This means Pampa will issue around 65.1 million new shares. After this deal, Rugby shareholders will own about 38% of the new company.
The deal brings the Cobrasco copper-molybdenum porphyry and Mantau iron-oxide, copper and gold projects to Pampa, expanding its presence in South America. It also creates technical synergies across three porphyry systems. It requires no cash and paves the way for a new dual ASX listing to fund an expanded exploration campaign.
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