REG - Great Southrn.Copper - Samples up to 3.39% Cu from Abundante Prospect

Great Southern CopperAnnouncement

18/07/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 2962G  Great Southern Copper PLC  18 July 2023

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE UK
VERSION OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION NO 596/2014 WHICH IS PART OF ENGLISH
LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS AMENDED.  ON
PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE, THIS
INFORMATION IS CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

 

18 July 2023

 

Great Southern Copper plc

("GSC" or the "Company")

 

 

High-Grade Cu in Rock Chip Samples up to 3.39% Cu from Abundante Mine Prospect

 

Copper-rich tourmaline breccia target identified at Especularita

 

Great Southern Copper plc (LSE: GSCU), the company focused on copper-gold
exploration in Chile, is pleased to announce high-grade copper assay results
from rock chip samples of its Abundante prospect located within the
Especularita Project.

 

Highlights:

·    Results for 33 rock chip and channel chip samples give assay results
up to 3.39% Cu

·    60% of samples report anomalous grades over 0.5% Cu with 39% of
samples over 1% Cu

·    Copper sulphide mineralisation visible in outcropping tourmaline
breccia

·    Miarolitic cavities infilled with copper sulphides suggests potential
for intrusive-related copper mineralisation at depth below the breccia system

·    Artisinal mine workings located in close proximity to the Teresita
Au-Cu vein-breccia swarm

·    Detailed drone magnetics in progress to define drill targets

 

High-grade copper mineralisation has been identified and sampled in historical
mine workings of a tz-tourmaline breccia-pipe located in close proximity to
the Teresita vein-breccia swarm(1). A total of 33 rock chip samples from mine
wall and dump material of the Abundante mine have been returned with assay
results reaching up to 3.39% Cu and 0.15 ppm Au (Figure 1).

 

Sam Garrett, Chief Executive Officer of Great Southern Copper, said: "We are
very pleased to receive our first set of exploration results for the new
Abundante prospect at Especularita. The acquisition of this project is the
result of many years of patient and diligent work by our concession management
team and I would like to thank them for their continued efforts.

 

"The geology of the prospect displays characteristic evidence of being a
tourmaline breccia pipe, many of which are known to host high-grade copper
deposits. Furthermore, tourmaline breccia pipes are often known to occur in
clusters. Therefore, the Company will fast track its exploration efforts at
Abundante, including a detailed in-fill drone magnetics survey now in
progress, to advance this prospect for scout drilling.

 

"We are rapidly achieving our goal at Especularita of generating a pipeline of
high-grade copper prospects - Teresita, Victoria, Aurelia and now Abundante -
that will become targets for reconnaissance drilling programmes. It is
exciting to see that the four prospects identified to date all represent
different styles of mineralisation, further highlighting the significant
potential of the Especularita Project."

 

 

Tourmaline breccia-pipe copper deposits:

Copper mineralisation at the Abundante mine occurs as coarse chalcopyrite and
tourmaline in the matrix of clast-supported breccia intruding diorite host
rock. Geological mapping of the mine workings suggests that the breccia body
has a broadly elliptical shape in plan-view and is exposed over a 20 x 15 m
area. The mine walls and dump material exhibit classic decompressive shock
textures, such as shingle-breccia and chalcopyrite-filled miarolitic cavities,
characteristic of intrusive-related tourmaline breccia pipes (Figure 2). The
"shingles" (fragments of stacked host rock) are typically flat-lying
suggesting that the mine working is currently exposing the upper part of the
breccia system which has potential to increase in both size and grade at
depth.

 

Intrusive-related tourmaline breccia pipes are a known source of high-grade
copper.  Examples of these deposits currently being explored for copper
include the Chanape Cu-Au-Ag project in Peru (Turmalina Metals TSX:TBX) and
the Soledad Cu project also in Peru (Chakana Copper TSXV:PERU).

 

Abundante Cu Mine:

The historical Abundante copper mine was acquired earlier this year(2) as one
of a suite of 27 concessions (4,804 ha) that the Company won via an auction of
defaulted and/or abandoned third party concessions. The mine was developed on
an artisanal scale by local miners for oxide copper and was presumably
terminated once mining encountered the water table or sulphide mineralisation.
Historical production records for the mine are not available and it is assumed
that ore from the mine was delivered to the ENAMI government plant located at
either Ovalle or Illapel. Records of historical exploration are similarly not
available, however, it is evident that at least one drill-hole targeted the
shallow copper-oxide mineralisation.

 

Sampling and results:

All rock chip samples collected are located using hand-held GPS units (WGS84
zone 19S datum, UTM coordinate system) and allocated a unique sample number
using a ticket-book system. Channel chip samples were taken on 2 metre
intervals defined using a tape measure - random chips of rock were collected
from the mine face using a rock-pick over a horizontal length of approximately
two meters and a vertical height of about 30 centimetres with each sample
placed in a single sample bag. The centre point of each channel chip sample
was located visually on a detailed geo-located drone image that has an
inherent GPS error of +/- 3 metres. Although efforts were made to ensure
representativity of the channel samples, the chip method is not continuous and
therefore should be treated as indicative.

 

Samples are transported from the field and delivered by Company employees to
ALS Laboratories in Santiago where they are prepared for analysis (weighed,
dried, crushed and pulverised). A subsequent 200g split of each sample pulp is
then forwarded to the ALS geochemical laboratory in Lima, Peru, where samples
are assayed for gold (30g fire assay with ICP-AES finish, ALS code AU-ICP21)
and analysed for 48 major, base and trace elements by ICP-MS following a
four-acid digest (ALS code ME-MS61).

 

Of the 33 samples collected 60% of samples report a copper assay grade above
0.5% Cu and 39% of samples report metal grades above 1.0% Cu. To date gold is
not generally significant in samples from this prospect with only one sample
reporting assays grades above 0.1 ppm Au.

 

Figure 1: Drone topographic map of Abundante copper mine with
copper-in-rockchip geochemistry (Cu%) thematic map. The black outline
indicates the interpreted known surface expression of the tourmaline breccia,
which may extend further under mine workings and waste dumps. UTM19S WGS84

 

 

Figure 2: Typical decompressive shock textures for tourmaline breccias exposed
at Abundante mine, (left) flat-lying shingle breccia with oxide copper
staining, and (right) copper sulphide-filled miarolitic cavities.

 

References:

1.    RNS 5675F (11 Jul 2023): High grade Cu-Au in rock chip samples from
Teresita up to 5.97% Cu and 13.7g/t Au.

2.    RNS 3666Q (20 Feb 2023): Exploration Update at Especularita and San
Lorenzo.

 

Enquiries:

 

 Great Southern Copper plc
 Sam Garrett, Chief Executive Officer      +44 20 4582 3500

 SI Capital Limited
 Nick Emerson                              +44 (0)14 8341 3500

 Gracechurch Group
 Harry Chathli, Alexis Gore, Henry Gamble  +44 (0)20 4582 3500

 

Notes for Editors:

 

About Great Southern Copper

 

Great Southern Copper is a mineral exploration company focused on copper-gold
deposits in Chile. The Company has the option to acquire rights to 100% of two
projects that are prospective for large scale copper-gold deposits in the
underexplored coastal belt of Chile, a globally significant mining
jurisdiction and the world's largest copper producer.

 

The two projects comprise the San Lorenzo Project, northeast of the coastal
town of La Serena in northern Chile, and the Especularita Project located
approximately 170km to the south of the San Lorenzo project. The two
early-stage Cu-Au exploration projects are within the same coastal
metallogenic belt as other major deposits including Teck's Andacollo copper
and gold mine and Pucobre's El Espino project. Significant historical
small-scale and artisanal workings for both copper and gold are readily
evident in both exploration project areas.

 

Great Southern Copper is strategically positioned to support the global market
for copper, a key metal in the clean energy transition around the world. The
Company is actively engaged in a two-year exploration and evaluation work
programme targeting both large tonnage, low to medium grade Cu-Au deposits as
well as low tonnage high-grade Cu-Au deposits.

 

Further information on the Company is available on the Company's website:
https://gscplc.com (https://gscplc.com)

 

Competent Person Statement

 

The information in this announcement that relates to exploration results is
based on and fairly represents information reviewed or compiled by Mr Sam
Garrett, a Competent Person who is a Member of the Australian Institute of
Geoscientists and a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. Mr Garrett
is the CEO of Great Southern Copper PLC. Mr Garrett has sufficient experience
that is relevant to the styles of mineralisation and types of deposit under
consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent
Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting
of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr Garrett has
provided his prior written consent to the inclusion in this announcement of
the matters based on information in the form and context in which it appears.

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