ASX-listed Southern Hemisphere Mining has expanded its mineralised footprint at its Llahuin copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry project in Chile, with high-grade rock chips grading up to 7.28 per cent copper, 18.65 grams per tonne gold and 55g/t silver.
The company says free gold was panned in five samples taken from a 500m stretch north of the resource zone at the 1.9km-long Cerro Ferro porphyry-hosted geochemistry target.
It comes as the explorer also reveals it has dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FWB) under the ticker code “N4K” in a move designed to broaden the company’s exposure to European investors.
Southern Hemisphere has appointed German-based consultant, Dr Reuter Investor Relations, to help promote the company, engage with investors and increase trading volumes of its shares on the FWB.
Meanwhile, management is continuing to pursue the rock-chip sampling and mapping program it started last year at Llahuin and recent work identified the high-grade veins. The company says the newly-discovered veins hosting the high-grade mineralisation occur in swarms within a porphyry breccia. It also says understanding the vein systems is an important part of refining drill-hole locations.
The best result from the five panned gold samples from the newly-discovered outcropping quartz veins was 18.65g/t gold, with another sample just 4m away returning 7.56g/t gold.
Several high-grade copper veins were also found west of the Ferrocarril porphyry deposit, which is in the southern part of the CerroFerro mineralised zone and has a resource of 15.9 million tonnes at 0.37 per cent copper equivalent. The veins returned results up to 7.28 per cent copper.
The Cerro De Oro deposit at the northern end of the CerroFerro zone has a resource of 41.6 million tonnes at 0.38 per cent copper equivalent. The bigger deposit immediately north of the CerroFerro zone is the Central deposit, which boasts a resource of 108 million tonnes grading 0.42 per cent copper equivalent. The Central deposit has a historical mining background dating back to the 1700s in shallow pits, while modern exploration recommenced in 1983.
Southern Hemisphere is seeking to expand resources within its concessions by identifying and drilling copper-gold-molybdenum-silver targets. The current resource at Llahuin contains 680,000 copper equivalent tonnes of metal and the company is aiming to double the resource base before starting a prefeasibility study. If that is achieved, management believes it will be eyeing an annual 12-million-tonne processing throughput during a 25-year mine life.
Chile is the world’s biggest copper producer, with most of its production coming from porphyry deposits. Southern Hemisphere has declared resources at three porphyry deposits and is actively looking for further deposits.
The discovery of high-grade veins in two locations well outside resource zones bodes well for the discovery of additional resources after successful confirmatory drilling.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au