If you asked Luquman Shaheen, president and chief executive of Panoro Minerals (PML-V, POROF-O), why he likes Peru he’d tell you about its long and rich history of private mining, its pro-mining culture and its rational foreign investment laws.
But he’d also tell you that he likes the geology of southern Peru and the prospective Apurimac region in particular, where the company’s Antilla copper-molybdenum project is situated, 140 km southwest of the city of Cusco.
The deposit lies within 100 km of a number of other exploration projects, such as Southern Copper’s (PCU-N) Los Chancas copper porphyry deposit, Xstrata’s (XSRAF-O, XTA-L) Las Bambas project, Antares Minerals’ (ANM-V, ANMFF-O) Haquira project, and Norsemont Mining’s (NOM-T, NOMFF-O) Constancia project.
And with the release of the first resource for Antilla, nailing down future financing will become a heck of a lot easier, Shaheen says.
“The climate for raising money is definitely a lot better than it was six months ago but it’s still very, very difficult to raise money on pure exploration plays. So that’s why it was important to focus in on Antilla and get the resource estimate completed,” Shaheen said in a telephone interview.
Panoro’s Antilla project has an inferred resource of 1.6 billion lbs. copper and 30.6 million lbs. molybdenum.
At a cutoff grade of 0.25% copper, Antilla’s East Block contains 154.4 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.47% copper and 0.009% molybdenum. The resource includes a higher-grade zone of 70.4 million tonnes averaging 0.56% copper and 0.011% molybdenum.
The resource estimate was based on 67 drill holes, including 48 drill holes from Panoro’s exploration program completed last December.
A potential starter pit within the conceptual life-of-mine pit holds 15 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 0.72% copper and 0.017% molybdenum with a stripping ratio of 0.9, which the company maintains “provides opportunity to improve the economics of a future operation.”
Antilla is a tabular blanket of supergene sulphide mineralization dominated by chalcocite and molybdenite, the company says, but it also includes some underlying primary chalcopyrite. The resource is hosted in a package of quartzites and quartz arenites of the Soraya formation and has alteration and mineralization characteristics that may be associated with undiscovered hypogene intrusive- hosted porphyry-style copper mineralization, the company reports.
Exploration targets at Antilla’s West Block (2.5 km from the East Block), as well as a deeper porphyry target at the East Block, will be drilled to estimate the potential for expanding the resource base, subject to financing.
“We’re exploring alternatives right now for financing the next stage of exploration at Antilla as well as the feasibility studies that will follow,” Shaheen says. “In the meantime, we’re putting together an internal economic evaluation of Antilla.”
Panoro’s other advanced-stage exploration project in southern Peru, Cotabambas, has a 2007 inferred resource of 114 million tonnes grading 0.68% copper and 0.38 gram gold at a copper cutoff of 0.3% for a total of 1.71 billion lbs. copper and 1.39 million oz. gold.
The company holds a portfolio of 12 other exploration properties in Peru and intends to drill test at least one of the targets this year, financing permitting. Thirteen of Panoro’s 14 exploration projects in the country are in southern Peru.
At presstime, Panoro traded at 30¢ per share. The company has a 52-week trading range of 6-59¢ and 84.6 million shares outstanding.
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