The La Higuera IOCG project is a mid-stage copper-gold exploration project located in northern Chile and surrounding the high-grade historic La Higuera mining center (Figure 1). IOCG is the acronym for “iron oxide copper-gold’, a style of copper-gold deposit most prominently found in Australia, Brazil and Chile. The largest example is the Olympic Dam deposit in South Australia with a mineral resource of 9.08 Bt at 0.87% Cu, 0.31 g/t Au, 1.5 g/t Ag, 0.28 kg/t U3O8 as of 2010 (Primary Industries and Resources SA fact sheet, 2010).
The La Higuera IOCG project includes two significant mineralized IOCG systems which have been drilled, the Gaby and Chirsposo systems, and additional earlier-stage targets defined from the comprehensive geophysical datasets. The best drill intersections to date from the Gaby system comprise:
- 268m @ 0.66% copper, 0.14 g/t gold and 330ppm cobalt from 52m depth in hole GBY001, including 90m @ 1.02% copper, 0.23 g/t gold and 681ppm cobalt from 230m
- 285m @ 0.40% copper, 0.08 g/t gold from 100m depth (start of assaying) in hole LH-RC-07, including 52m @ 0.60% copper, 0.12 g/t gold from 190m
- 264m @ 0.31% copper, 0.06 g/t gold and 142ppm cobalt from 88m depth in hole GBY007, including 44m @ 0.52% copper, 0.10 g/t gold and 151 ppm cobalt from 96m
- 36m @ 0.66% copper, 0.14 g/t gold from 196m depth in hole LH-RC-06
- 50m @ 0.36% copper, 0.07 g/t gold from 60m in hole LH-RC-11
And at Chirsposo comprise:
- 82m @ 0.35% Cu, 19.2% Fe from 64m to EOH in hole CAB0006
- 58m @ 0.33% Cu, 13.5% Fe from surface in hole CAB0002
- 54m @ 0.38% Cu, 14.8% Fe and 0.09 g/t Au from 122m in hole CB-01
- 167m @ 0.21% Cu, 0.06 g/t Au from 56m in hole CHS002
Drilling indicates the mineralization at both the Gaby and Chirsposo prospects is the magnetite-rich IOCG style of mineralization, similar to mineralization at the Candelaria deposit.
Importantly, geophysical (IP and ground magnetic) and drill data from both prospects indicate the currently drilled systems extend from outcropping areas, under the adjacent gravel cover.
The pre-existing extensive ground magnetic and IP geophysical database, together with new gravity, IP and ground magnetic data acquired by Tribeca, has yielded numerous exploration targets, both outcropping and under cover, which are now being investigated with the objective of providing additional drill targets.
The majority of the project licences are 100%-owned by Tribeca Resources, with the licences over the Gaby target the subject of a 6-year option to purchase a 100% interest. In total, the project comprises 4,147 hectares within 42 mineral exploitation concessions and two exploration concessions.
