- Battery Mineral Resources (BMR) delivers favorable drilling results at Punitaqui Copper mine
- Cinabrio was the primary source of copper for the Punitaqui mill which typically produced between 20 and 25 million pounds of copper annually
- BMR is currently developing the Punitaqui Mining Complex and pursuing the potential near term resumption of operations for second half of 2022
- The Punitaqui mine, operating as recently as April 2020, has typically produced 20 to 25 million lbs of copper in concentrate during its nine plus year history
- Battery Mineral Resources Corp. (BMR) is in the grey, trading at C$0.35 at 11:16 am EST
Battery Mineral Resources (BMR) has new drill core assay results from the ongoing 2021 exploration and in-fill drill program.
The program is taking place at the San Andres zone of the Punitaqui mine complex in Chile.
Punitaqui is slated for resumption of copper concentrate production in the second half of 2022.
San Andres is the “normal” fault displaced upper portion of the adjacent Cinabrio copper deposit that is part of Punitaqui.
Cinabrio was the primary source of copper for the Punitaqui mill which typically produced between 20 and 25 million pounds of copper annually and was operated for nine-plus years by each of Glencore and Xiana Mining.
The San Andres zone is one of several historic zones within BMR’s Punitaqui project with partially delineated resource potential and established underground access. Historic wide-spaced drilling completed by the previous operators between 2011- 2020 totalled 9,676 meters in 76 holes.
Some highlights consist of The San Andres drill program which is designed to confirm resource potential identified over a 600-meter strike length by previous drilling programs.
Also, 8,156m of drilling in 38 diamond core holes were completed in the Phase 1 drill program at San Andres and final complete multi-element analytical results have been received for all samples.
In addition, a composite drillcore metallurgical sample from the San Andres zone was shipped to SGS Lakefield in Ontario where preliminary metallurgical test work is underway.
Battery CEO Martin Kostuik states; “We believe these new drilling results complement the prior successful drilling at San Andres and, together, demonstrate that this drill program has the potential to provide the company with an additional source of copper ore for the Punitaqui mill and longevity for the project.”
“We look forward to providing further exciting updates for the drill program as we progress towards the 2022 resource update and funding the potential near-term resumption of operations and cash flow at Punitaqui,” added Kostuik.
The San Andres target is a zone of copper mineralization located 500m southwest of the high-grade Cinabrio deposit mined by Glencore and Xiana Mining. San Andres is a tabular sedimentary horizon within a volcanic sequence.
This sedimentary horizon is variably mineralized and has a variable width ranging from 5m – 30m. It consists of an interlayered volcano-sedimentary sequence composed of dark-coloured laminated and unlaminated shales, volcanoclastic sandstone, conglomerates and breccias and tuff breccias.
There is a variable component of syngenetic pyrite. The horizon dips 40 to 50 degrees to the east and is cut-off at depth by the moderately west dipping San Andres fault.
Mineralization consists of veinlets and irregular disseminations in both the fine and coarse-grained clastic rocks and locally within the volcanic rocks above and below the host unit.
Sample assay results, reported herein, are from the final nine drill holes and are in addition to the results reported previously from the first 29 drill holes completed at San Andres.
BMR is currently developing the Punitaqui Mining Complex and pursuing the potential near-term resumption of operations for the second half of 2022 at the prior producing Punitaqui copper-gold mine.
The Punitaqui mine, operating as recently as April 2020, has typically produced 20 to 25 million lbs of copper in concentrate during its nine-plus-year operating history and is located in the Coquimbo Region of Chile.
BMR is engaged in the discovery, acquisition, and development of battery metals (cobalt, lithium, graphite, nickel and copper), in North and South America and South Korea with the intention of becoming a sustainable supplier of battery minerals to the electrification marketplace.
Battery Mineral Resources Corp. (BMR) is in the grey, trading at C$0.35 at 11:16 am EST.
