Southern Hemisphere Mining (ASX: SUH) has nailed copper hits up to 122m thick grading 0.41 per cent copper-equivalent which have extended the strike length at its flagship Llahuin copper-gold-molybdenum project, 350km north of Santiago in central Chile, to 2.2km.
The latest drilling has defined a new mineralised zone south of its Ferro deposit with a string of thick intercepts expected to feed into a resource upgrade in the first half of next year.
Results from the latest program comprise the big 122m section starting from 2m, which included a 58m stretch going 0.49 per cent copper-equivalent from 66m.
This was backed up by an impressive 81m run churning out a grade of 0.49 per cent copper-equivalent from 2m.
Another 48m hit came in at 0.58 per cent copper-equivalent from a depth of 30m and a further 16m hit graded 0.52 per cent copper-equivalent.
Management says multiple holes remain open at depth and will be further targeted with a diamond rig to see how deep the mineralisation extends.
It believes a potential feeder zone at its nearby Cerro deposit has been identified from the reverse circulation drilling campaign and with the pre-collars now in place, the diamond rig will be brought in to do its thing into the deeper bedrock.
The company kicked-off a magnetotelluric (MT) survey last week to complement its existing induced-polarisation, geochemical and drill data, in search of deeper copper targets.
The survey is anticipated to be completed by next week and will help target planned deeper holes at the company’s Cerro and Ferro deposits and a southern porphyry target named Curiosity.
An MT survey is an electromagnetic geophysical method for measuring the electrical resistivity of the earth’s sub-surface.
It has been used in the region previously to identify some world-class copper porphyry deposits, including Atex Resources’ 61-square kilometre Valeriano deposit in northern Chile.
The system is still open along strike both north and south with the benefit of mineralisation largely from surface, optimum for open-pit mining configuration. Importantly, recent results also confirm a significant untested expansion of the Cerro-Ferro deposits, for strike, plunge and dip extensions.
Southern Hemisphere Mining Chairman Mark Stowell
Stowell said the company was well funded with cash holdings of $4 million at the end of September.
The new mineralised zone south of the Ferro deposit has extended the project’s strike length 300m to the southwest, stretching it from 1.9km to 2.2km.
Mineralisation remains open in that direction and further drilling is required to determine its full extent.
Southern Hemisphere is particularly interested in its Curiosity target at the Southern Porphyry prospect, which sits 550m below the previous Santa Maria gold workings and is about 1km in diameter, with a depth of 2km.
The diameter of the target stretches to 2km at depth.
A previous 409 rock chip and pulp sampling program at Curiosity across a 200m grid-spacing, in addition to testing of epithermal vein crops, returned samples assaying up to 0.69 per cent copper, 7.38 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 8.3g/t silver and 459 parts per million (ppm) molybdenum.
Interestingly, the company is also focused on the ground that lies between the Cerro and Ferro deposits.
Known as the Cerro-Ferro link, the area has returned soil samples running about 1000ppm of copper.
The company revealed in September it was planning to drill 5000m of RC and diamond drilling at the project to particularly target the Cerro and Ferro deposits, along with the Curiosity target.
It is aiming to add scale to its copper resource that consists of 169 million tonnes grading 0.4 per cent copper-equivalent for 680,000t of copper-equivalent material, which was measured under the old 2004 JORC guidelines.
The updated resource planned for the first half of next year will establish a 2012 JORC compliant updated mineral resource.
Management believes it has a prime opportunity to bolster the resource with near-surface tonnes, potentially returning higher grades.
The pursuit of a bulk-scale copper project in the Southern Hemisphere-positioned Chile, at a time of expected rising demand for copper in the coming decades, may in time prove to be fortuitous for the company.
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