Generating a copper prospect on geologically fertile ground in Chile
March 23, 2022Montero Mining and Exploration CEO and President Dr Tony Harwood gives an in-depth view of the
company’s Avispa copper project that now spans a 470 km2 prized land package in northern Chile.
Q: Why is it important for Montero to have exposure to the copper space through its Avispa project?
A: Copper is a fundamental metal to the green economy and the copper price has increased significantly in the last two years. The Avispa property is a copper exploration opportunity that came up fortuitously, so we acted quickly to stake the ground for Montero. License application and fees are not expensive in Chile and Avispa will provide added value for Montero shareholders.
Q: Is the Avispa property in a prime location for copper exploration?
A: The Avispa property is located in a well-defined, north-south trending Paleocene porphyry copper belt in Chile. This belt hosts large open-pit copper mines, including Spence, Sierra Gorda and Cerro Colorado and the newly discovered Bufalo project by Sociedad Contractual Minera (SCMB) further to the south. The Esperanza copper mine is also situated along this trend and Avispa is 50 km west of Codelco’s super giant Chuquicamata copper mine – so something is definitely happening in this part of the porphyry belt, which is a major copper province in global terms.
Q: What makes the newly acquired Abeja concessions at Avispa – announced in your latest media release – attractive?
A: As part of our routine exploration process we looked at satellite imagery of the Avispa area and surrounds. This showed exploration activity over a wider area, with wide-spaced drilling in some of the area. The ground looked attractive to us and when it became available we started a staking process. The newly staked concessions include an area that has seen intensive close-spaced drilling.
Q: What is the significance of new copper discoveries near the Avispa project?
A: It demonstrates that the belt is geologically fertile for hosting copper deposits and prospective for finding major mines in one of the foremost copper provinces in the world.
Q: How is the Phase One field exploration program progressing?
A: The program is progressing well. It’s a big area and the team has been taking rock chip samples from previous drilling sites while doing geological and structural mapping. The geochemical analysis of these rock chips will provide information on the rocks at depth. The results may also help us vector towards mineralized – but we’ll be able to provide more details on this when we start getting the results of the analyses.
Q: Does the wide-spaced drilling previously undertaken here by other parties support Montero’s exploration work?
A: The fact that companies drilled areas of Avispa means that they thought it was highly prospective, even if the majority of the drill holes are wide-spaced. The previous holders of the concessions keep the drilling information confidential and we have no access to this, which is regrettable, but the rock drilling chips that were left behind is a good start and an indication of the subsurface geology.
Q: What was Montero’s consulting geologist Marcial Vergara and its Chile-based team’s first impression of the project?
A: They are very excited that we were able to acquire this prime piece of exploration ground from under the noses of major mining companies. Major miners are actively exploring along this copper belt and discoveries are often made.
Q: What are the benefits of Montero’s prospect generation strategy that will see a partner advance the project through the drill phase?
A: Montero has strengths in prospect generation, project evaluation and development. Staking ground and early stage evaluation is inexpensive whereas drilling is expensive. This is why we are using every modern technique at our disposal as well as old-fashioned field mapping and sampling and walking the ground to focus on defining drilling targets.
