Australian Critical Minerals lines up feast of transformational gold, silver and copper projects in Peru

Australian Critical Minerals is adding to its plate with a move to acquire gold, copper, silver, base metals and lithium projects in Peru.

Australian Critical Minerals’ move to acquire Circuit Resources will bring some tasty gold and copper projects under its fold. Pic: Getty Images

• Australian Critical Minerals is acquiring several high-impact gold and copper exploration projects in Peru

• Deal includes projects with gold, copper, silver, base metals and lithium potential

• Company to start approvals process for drilling at the advanced Blanca Gold Project

Special Report: Australian Critical Minerals is making a potentially transformative acquisition that will deliver a pipeline of high-impact gold and copper exploration projects in Peru.

It has entered into a binding share purchase agreement to acquire Circuit Resources which owns or has the option to acquire the concessions associated with the Blanca, Riqueza, Flint, Cerro Rayas, Liro and Kamika projects.

These are primarily focused on gold and copper with silver, base metals and lithium as a secondary focus.

Australian Critical Minerals (ASX:ACM) has also completed an oversubscribed placement of shares priced at 5.5c each to sophisticated and professional investors to raise $1m for exploration plans across its new and existing projects.

Location of Circuit Resources’ projects in Peru. Pic: Australian Critical Minerals

“The acquisition of Circuit Resources is a significant opportunity for ACM, delivering a pipeline of high-impact exploration projects across gold, copper, silver, zinc and lithium in Peru,” ACM managing director Dean de Largie said.

“The scale and quality of these assets - spanning over 25,000 hectares - give us immediate drill-ready targets and exceptional scope for new discoveries.

“Projects like Riqueza, with high-grade copper-silver veins over several kilometres and proximity to majors like Anglo American, offer Tier-1 potential.

“Blanca has already demonstrated strong gold mineralisation, while Cerro Rayas and the Salar projects provide exposure to critical metals with potentially strong demand tailwind.”

Top tier gold and copper potential

The cream of the new assets is undoubtedly the Blanca gold project and the Riqueza copper-silver project.

Blanca is a low-sulphidation epithermal quartz vein gold system known as the Cruz Vein and is within a copper-gold-silver porphyry-epithermal metallogenic belt that also hosts Alta Copper’s Canariaco porphyry copper deposit about 14km away and Rio Tinto’s La Granja porphyry copper deposit about 38km away.

It consists of two concessions, one of which is held by Circuit’s subsidiary Pegoco and the other – Cueva Blanca 001 – by unrelated parties.

Mining rights for Cueva Blanca 001 have been assigned to Pegoco in consideration for a 0.5% net smelter royalty to the holders. These rights expire on December 21, 2031, and can be extended by Pegoco within 90 days of expiry.

Pegoco can purchase the Cueva Blanca 001 concession for US$860,000 at any time on or before December 21, 2028, in cash or shares.

Long section of the Cruz vein at the Bianca project showing drill intersections. Pic: Australian Critical Minerals

The Cruz vein outcrops at surface and was partially explored by Inca Pacific Resources in 1996 and 1997 with further trenching and rock sampling carried out in 2010 and 2018 by St Elias Mining.

This drilling and trenching delivered high-grade gold hits with notable intersections including:

• 1.5m grading a hefty 52.8g/t gold within a broader 9.5m intersection at 11.27g/t;
• 4m at 3.97g/t gold including 1.75m at 7.5g/t; and
• 1.5m at 22.68g/t gold within 5m at 7.04g/t.

The strike length of the vein system interpreted from the extent of the anomalous quartz vein samples is ~3km within which there is a known strike of 1km in the drilled area.

ACM plans to prioritise exploration of Blanca and will start the approvals process for twinning, infill and extensional drilling immediately.

Meanwhile, the Riqueza project is a district-scale, intermediate-sulphidation vein system extending over a 10km strike length in the province of Huancavelica about 150km from the capital of Lima.

It is southwest of several deposits including Minera IRL’s Corihuarmi high sulphidation gold-silver project, Kuya Silver Corp’s Bethania intermediate sulphidation silver project and Lara Exploration’s Kenita polymetallic project.

Location of the Riqueza and nearby deposits. Pic: Australian Critical Minerals

Riqueza, which is also adjacent to tenements held by Anglo American, consists of nine concessions.

It has undergone substantial exploration by previous operators with copper grades from 1% to 8.7% and silver assays to 2238 g/t reported in historical surface rock chip samples.

This sampling and mapping has identified several targets for further exploration.

A review and prioritisation of historical drill targets based on extensive surface sampling, mapping and geophysics is underway with the company planning to start drill permitting in the second half of 2025 with a focus on the Enclave and Colina Roja prospects.

Other projects

Circuit also holds the 2200 hectare Flint gold project in La Libertad Province, a historically gold-rich region, about 70km east-southeast of Trujillo.

It features a high-sulphidation epithermal gold and potentially copper-gold exploration target covering a 4.7km by 1.7km zone of intensely acid sulphate-altered andesitic volcanics.

Strong silicification and acid leaching suggest deep hydrothermal fluid activity which may be associated with the nearby San Pedro porphyry.

Surface sampling and geophysics will be expanded into the southern zone of the alteration system with drilling – likely in early 2026 – to follow target integration and modelling.

Cerro Rayas is 196km southeast of Lima and hosts multiple historical lead-zinc-silver workings in Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) carbonate replacement deposits.

The project is in a region rich in polymetallic deposits such as Pukaqaqa, Huajoto and Tucumachay.

ACM plans to conduct mapping between the mineralisation sites to determine if a lateral relationship exists between known sites. This could then be followed by scout drilling.

Last but not least are the Liro and Kamika lithium projects in southern Peru that cover salars (salt lakes) that drain lithium-rich Miocene volcanic sequences, similar to the settings of salars in the region that produce a substantial proportion of the world’s lithium at attractive operating costs.

These are greenfield projects that have seen no previous assessment for their lithium potential and were selected based on standard lithium salar ground target criteria.

As greenfield targets, early-stage geochemical sampling and basin modelling are planned for 2026.

This article was developed in collaboration with Australian Critical Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Australian Critical Minerals lines up feast of transformational gold, silver and copper projects in Peru