Pan Asia eyeballs more strong Chilean copper shows

Pan Asia Metals has revealed more strong visual copper indicators from rock chips at its new flagship Rosario project in Chile after wrapping up its first fieldwork program that has backed up encouraging results thrown out from the site by previous explorers.

The company says its recent first-pass fieldwork programs included the collection of some 316 samples, including 193 soil samples, 100 rock-chip samples and 23 stream sediment samples.

Extensive green and blue visual copper mineralisation from Pan Asia Metals’ Rosario copper project in Chile.

It has reported many occurrences of secondary copper minerals, including malachite (green) and chrysocolla (blue) from various rock-chip samples, signalling significant potential for the red metal across all three of the project’s prospective trends. Initial observations of old workings also noted that some areas feature primary mineralised copper sulphides.

‘The program yielded many rock chip samples of green (malachite) and blue (chrysocolla) secondary copper minerals.’

Pan Asia Metals managing director Paul Lock

Management believes it has identified a myriad of “walk-up” drill targets across the project, with confirmation of the locations to come in the form of initial soil and stream sediment sample results. They are expected to be received within the next fortnight, while the rock chip results are anticipated in about a month.

Pan Asia Metals managing director Paul Lock said: “Initial field observations from the first phase of fieldwork provide compelling support for the work conducted by previous explorers. The program yielded many rock chip samples of green (malachite) and blue (chrysocolla) secondary copper minerals, as well as some copper sulphides, which is pleasing.”

Located 10km north of Codelco’s El Salvador copper mine, Rosario is nestled in the Chile’s central copper belt – one of the world’s most prolific copper-producing regions. Pan Asia says its early findings from old mine workings and outcrops in the project area suggest the presence of high-grade copper lodes and structural controls that present enticing early targets for the drill rig.

The company is also nearing the completion of its induced-polarisation (IP) geophysical survey, progressing some 19 IP geophysical survey lines for a substantial 27 line kilometres of survey that is expected to wrap up this week.

Management says it is hopeful the results from the IP survey will unveil some deep oxide zones that are potentially amenable to simple heap leaching mining operations. It believes the deep oxide zones will be pivotal in prioritising drill targets, with a view to launching a reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program next month.

The presence of a litter of small-scale historical mines across Rosario and its proximity to the El Salvador copper mine, provide Pan Asia with a high level of confidence in the project’s copper prospectivity. It says it observed encouraging outcrops around the old mines and prospecting pits, however, the project area does contain extensive areas of gravel cover that could be hiding further potential mineralisation.

Previous exploration efforts in the region have yielded impressive figures for non-outcropping primary mineralisation, with many rock-chip samples grading between 1 and 5 per cent copper. The company remains confident that current samples will likely replicate the historic results when returned from the laboratory.

Rosario’s location puts it in the box seat as one of South America’s most strategically situated projects, as it lies about 100km by road from Chilean State mining firm ENAMI’s El Salado oxide and sulphide copper ore processing plant, while Codelco’s Porterillos copper smelter sits just 40km south of its El Salvador mine.

Pan Asia will now focus all of its preparations on the maiden 2500m RC drilling program at Rosario. With plenty of walk-up targets, the mission now will be to rank them for testing, armed with the soon-to-be-revealed field and IP results.

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