Iron Creek & Hochschild Mining discover “exotic” copper mineralization, Victoria Joint Venture

PR Newswire: Mining | February 20, 2012 | 5:49 pm Base Metals Canada Europe Copper 

VANCOUVER, Feb. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Iron Creek Capital Corp. (TSX-V: IRN) is pleased to provide an exploration update on recent work completed by Hochschild Mining Holdings Limited (HOC.L: “Hochschild”), the operators of the Victoria Joint Venture project.

The Victoria Property – an outstanding 37km long land package along the Domeyko Fault Zone in northern Chile, located approximately midway between the world-class porphyry copper districts at La Escondida and El Salvador – is prospective for porphyry copper deposits and epithermal precious metals systems, and contains multiple targets.

Highlights of the recent work include:

  • The discovery of exotic copper mineralization (Picaron Exotic Copper target) in a palæo-channel within a gravel-filled basin to the northeast of the Picaron porphyry copper target, tested by a total of 1,512m of reverse circulation drilling in 15 vertical holes.
  • The completion of 1,703m of a planned 3,000m of diamond drilling in 4 holes at the Picaron porphyry copper target. Alteration, mineralization and veinlet vectors seem to indicate increasing copper and molybdenum values at depth.

Current activities at the Victoria Joint Venture include:

  • Further diamond drilling of the Picaron porphyry target, focusing on alteration and mineralization vectors towards a potential porphyry copper deposit.
  • Further evaluation of the Picaron Exotic Copper target, focusing on vectors towards “green” copper oxides and higher grades.
  • Continuing review of all current and historic exploration data to help define new targets for drill testing and to properly plan the next stages of exploration on the property.

Tim Beale, President of Iron Creek, comments: “The detailed work being carried out by Hochschild at Picaron is indicating that the locus of the Picaron porphyry system has not yet been cut and likely occurs at depth. This exciting detective work by them, together with drilling currently underway, should help to confirm vectors towards the location of potentially higher grade mineralization. The Picaron “exotic” copper discovery is also exciting and adds to the overall picture of a buried Cu-enriched porphyry nearby. The working model is that the supergene copper mineralization in the gravels is derived from the Picaron porphyry copper centre. This might imply a higher-grade portion to the Picaron porphyry, which has yet to be found and is the subject of the on-going work program. Alternatively, the exotic copper may be derived from an as yet undiscovered porphyry copper centre somewhere under the extensive post-mineral gravel cover on the property. Additionally, the exotic copper mineralization may have economic potential in its own right, and this possibility will also be investigated in the coming months.”

The Picaron Porphyry Copper Target

Hochschild completed 1,703 meters of diamond drilling in 4 angled holes at Picaron (see news release dated August 30th 2011), with a nominal spacing between the holes of 250m. The drilling program was less than the planned 3,000m in order to allow for a full interpretation of the results, including analysing vectors towards potential higher grade mineralisation.

Mining.com Recommends

More News