Xstrata to define Peru's Las Bambas copper resource by year end
Source: Platts
metalsplace.com
Xstrata Peru plans 85,000 meters of drilling this year at the Las Bambas copper deposit in southern Peru after registering a 69% increase in the mineral resource at the property following 2006 drilling, a company official said Friday.
Xstrata announced March 6 that indicated and inferred resources at Las Bambas, located in a remote area of Apurimac department, have increased from 300-mil mt at 1.1% copper to 508-mil mt at 1.14% copper grade using a 0.5% copper cut-off grade.
"The 100,000 meters of drilling we did last year was to really define the resource. We drilled much deeper and expanded the area of drilling," Ron Luethe, general manager of Xstrata Peru, told Platts.
The 85,000 mt of drilling this year should provide enough information to start a concept study, which will lead into a pre-feasibility study, he said.
"At the end of this year we should have a global resource," he added.
Xstrata said in its annual earnings release that substantial volumes of high grade skarn-style copper mineralization at Las Bambas as well as notable grades of molybdenum and gold mineralization "confirm the potential scale and quality of this mineral district."
In addition, Xstrata confirmed a resource of 470 million mt at 0.7% copper at the Antapaccay deposit, located 12 km southwest of the Tintaya copper mine it operates in southern Peru. The estimated resource was calculated by international mining consulting company AMEC, based on drilling done by Tintaya's previous owner BHP Billiton, Luethe said.
Xstrata will drill 48,000 mt this year at Antapaccay, Luethe said, which will lead into a pre-feasibility study. |
