Norfolk confirms shallow copper in Chile

Norfolk Metals has taken stock of initial assays from its maiden drilling program at the company’s Carmen project in Chile’s copper-rich Huasco Province. 

A standout strike delivered 53 metres at 1.1 per cent copper from only 62m downhole. The thick intercept included a 4-metre high-grade core averaging 2.8 per cent copper from 85m.

Other notable hits included 17m running at 0.9 per cent copper from 14m downhole and a further 22m intercept averaging 0.5 per cent copper from only 12m.

Norfolk’s first foray at Carmen with the drill rig plunged a total of 37 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes for 3401 metres. The program was set up to confirm the shallow copper oxide zone linked to the historic foreign resource of 5.6 million tonnes at 0.6 per cent copper, stretching across 700m of the Carmen Tabaco Thrust - a major regional structural corridor in northern Chile. The program also probed the vertical reach of primary copper sulphide mineralisation at depth along the highly prospective structural corridor.

Notably, a deeper, vertically drilled RC hole intersected strong sulphide mineralisation, visually confirming the potential for primary copper sulphide mineralisation. Mineralisation remains open at depth, with assays outstanding.

Norfolk is now putting the finishing touches on a new diamond drilling program to follow up on the source of the deeper copper mineralisation.

The company’s first order of business has been to pin down the exact trace of the Carmen Tabaco Thrust and its sub-parallel Carmen and Tabaco fault planes. Early signs from the maiden drilling and on-ground structural mapping point to a tightly folded, multi-fault corridor that may well be the plumbing system driving structurally controlled copper along the CTT.

At surface, copper oxide shows up as fracture coatings within altered metasediments, while deeper drilling has begun to tag disseminated primary copper sulphides in the same units. Notably, copper is also popping up in andesite and porphyritic dacite at depth, sitting snugly within the structural halo of the CTT.

A younger phase of epithermal quartz-sericite alteration overprints the metasediments, andesites and dacites, injecting high-grade copper and gold into veins and shears up to 3 metres wide. Many of these veins can still be seen in historical workings scattered across the project area. 

In parallel with the RC drilling campaign, the company has also completed a resampling program of roughly 1000m of historic diamond core drilled in 2006, which displays strong copper mineralisation. 

Historic drilling at Carmen by the previous lease owners - Canadian junior miner IPBX - reported standout hits of 41m grading 2.46 per cent copper from surface, another surface intercept of 39m running 1.48 per cent copper, and an additional 27.5m hit returning 1.12 per cent copper from only 1.5m downhole. 

Norfolk says the resource remains open in all directions and, notably, does not include some of these earlier stellar hits, which were never incorporated into the original resource.

Assays from the final six RC holes and the diamond core resampling program are expected early in the New Year.

The latest results will then feed into an updated JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate, slated for next year.

Norfolk Metals’ executive chairman Ben Phillips said: “These initial results from the Maiden Drill Campaign at Carmen confirm the highly prospective nature of this project in conjunction with the shallow mineralisation. We have some very strong results validating the copper oxide zone within the historical resource area while also showing significant grade tenor and continuity in sulphides, which are starting as shallow as 50m from beneath the oxide surface blanket.”

Norfolk lays claim to 22 contiguous exploration licenses covering a 46 square kilometre patch of the prospective 8.5-kilometre-long Carmen-Tabaco Belt. The belt sits in the Atacama’s copper-rich Huasco Province – home to some of the planet's biggest porphyry copper mines.  

Carmen sits just 16.5km from Newmont and Teck’s massive Relincho–Fortuna joint venture development - a copper-gold behemoth boasting 16.6 billion pounds of copper, 8.9 million ounces of gold and 464 million pounds of molybdenum.

Copper has staged a strong rebound of late, climbing to US$11,771 (A$17,694) a tonne this week as mounting supply-shortage warnings push prices toward record highs. It’s a timely backdrop for Norfolk as it accelerates exploration across its prospective patch in one of Chile’s most lucrative copper-rich provinces.

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