- Abacus (AME) commences drilling at its Willow porphyry copper property
- Abacus plans to drill four vertical holes, each to a depth of 600 metres
- Based on work done by Abacus, the target is at least 1.5 km by 1.5 km in size, the Willow porphyry remains essentially untested, and the porphyry center has not yet been identified
- Abacus is a mineral exploration and mine development company currently focused on copper and gold in B.C. and Nevada
- Abacus Mining & Exploration Corporation (AME) is up 6.25 per cent and is trading at C$0.17 at 1:07 pm ET
Abacus Mining & Exploration Corporation (AME) is commencing a diamond drilling program on its Willow porphyry copper property.
The property is located in the Yerington copper camp, southeast of Reno, Nevada.
Abacus plans to drill four vertical holes, each to a depth of 600 metres.
The holes will be approximately 200-300 metre step-outs from past drilling by the company in 2018. Based on work done by Abacus the target is at least 1.5 km by 1.5 km in size, the Willow porphyry remains essentially untested, and the porphyry center has not yet been identified.
The Yerington camp contains four known porphyry copper-molybdenum (Cu-Mo) deposits, and Abacus’s work points to the existence of a fifth porphyry on Willow, the first major discovery in the camp in over 40 years.
All four known copper porphyries are associated with a particular intrusive rock known as the Luhr Hill Granite.
Abacus completed geological, geochemical and geophysical work on Willow beginning in 2017 and then undertook a short core drilling program.
This drilling identified the Luhr Hill Granite on Willow with copper values in the 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent Cu range along with elevated Mo deposits.
This was a key new discovery, as there are no known instances of this granite in the camp without an associated porphyry. The Molybdenum values are a particularly strong indicator that you are close to a porphyry copper center.
The drilling also intersected porphyry dykes and quartz veins associated with the Luhr Hill Granite. The early halo quartz veins are significant, as they are found in other porphyry copper deposits in the camp and are also associated with economic porphyry copper deposits worldwide.
The 2018 drill program was designed to test a very small portion of an extensive zone of intense silicic and advanced argillic alteration, marked by coincident geological, geochemical and geophysical signatures typical of a porphyry copper or Cu-Mo deposit.
Porphyry copper systems are large in extent, and geochemistry collected from the drilling indicates that a likely porphyry center occurs north of the area initially drilled. The Company’s target is essentially identical to the two largest porphyry deposits in the Yerington camp, namely the past-producing Yerington mine and the undeveloped Ann Mason deposit.
Abacus recently engaged a consultant to review the Willow data. He agrees with previous interpretations that Willow clearly has a signature typical of a porphyry copper or Cu-Mo deposit.
He also agrees with past recommendations that the property undergoes more drilling, as the porphyry center has not yet been identified.
Abacus has the right to earn a 75 per cent ownership interest in the Willow property from Almadex America Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Almadex Minerals Ltd.
Abacus also holds a 20 per cent ownership interest in the Ajax copper-gold porphyry project, located near Kamloops, British Columbia., which is managed by base metal major KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., who holds the remaining 80 per cent.
The Ajax Project contains significant quantities of copper and gold, within a NI 43-101 Proven and Probable Mineral Reserve of 426 Mt at 0.29 per cent Cu, 0.19 g/t Au and 0.39 g/t Ag. Contained metal is in the order of 2.7 Bil lbs Cu, 2.6 Moz Au and 5.3 Moz Ag**.
Abacus is a mineral exploration and mine development company currently focused on copper and gold in B.C. and Nevada.
Abacus Mining & Exploration Corporation (AME) is up 6.25 per cent and is trading at C$0.17 at 1:07 pm ET.
