Fitzroy Minerals Inc. has reported continued progress in its definition drilling program at the Buen Retiro Copper Project in Chile, with significant copper intercepts that advance the company toward a maiden mineral resource estimate and initial economic study. The drilling, conducted with two rigs, has intersected substantial mineralization in the project’s southwest area.
Drill hole BRT-DDH048 returned 92.5 meters at 0.53% copper from 3.5 meters depth, including a higher-grade zone of 46.0 meters at 0.82% copper. Another hole, BRT-DDH049, intersected 83.0 meters at 0.57% copper from 95.0 meters, with 43.0 meters at 0.90% copper. These results demonstrate relatively consistent thickness of the copper-mineralized package in the southwest area, which measures approximately 80-90 meters thick with lower-grade shoulders surrounding a central core of higher-grade material.
The company is currently carrying out definition drilling of known mineralized trends to delineate Measured and Indicated Resources according to National Instrument 43-101 standards. This work focuses on oxide, mixed, and supergene material down to a maximum depth of 150 meters below surface for inclusion in a planned pre-feasibility study that will incorporate a heap leach project. The resource definition drilling has intersected many samples that exceed the ALS laboratory’s 1% copper maximum limit for exploration assay methods, requiring re-assaying using ore grade methods.
Merlin Marr-Johnson, President and CEO of Fitzroy Minerals, stated that the start of metallurgical test work for the pre-feasibility study represents a milestone event. The company has selected representative samples totaling 2,900 kilograms for metallurgical test work, which is now underway at SGS Laboratories. The program includes variability analysis across key lithological controls, targeted testing of hydrothermal breccia and iron-rich units, permeability and column leach testing, and evaluation of acid consumption behavior.
Fitzroy has defined three primary geo-metallurgical domains for the project: a higher-grade oxide domain with greater than or equal to 0.5% copper, a lower-grade oxide domain with 0.10-0.5% copper, and a higher-grade mixed supergene transition domain. This classification reflects both the geometry of the deposit and the metallurgical response expected from the principal copper oxide mineral assemblages. Conceptual modeling suggests that domain-specific treatment conditions may deliver meaningful improvements in overall copper recovery relative to a single blended oxide treatment strategy.
Concurrently, the company has completed a regional passive seismic Ambient Noise Tomography geophysical survey across a 5 kilometer by 5 kilometer area using technology from Fleet Space Technologies. Data processing and interpretation is underway, with a higher-resolution survey over a central 2 kilometer by 3 kilometer area planned once information from the first survey is interpreted. The ANT survey represents a step forward in the search for a major sulphide discovery at Buen Retiro.
With 32 new diamond drill holes completed in the southwest area totaling 5,143 meters, and assays pending for many of these holes, the company anticipates completing definition drilling in May. Following this, one drill rig will begin a minimum of 8,000 meters of Phase 3 exploration drilling to explore for sulphide mineralization and test ANT targets, while another will execute a 2,000 meter geotechnical drilling program. The company’s aim is to leverage potential future cash flow from the Buen Retiro heap leach copper operation to fund continued exploration for major copper deposits in Chile with minimal dilution.
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