Soaring demand for copper will help drive mergers, BHP CEO says
Demand for copper, a key element in the energy transition, is set to rise by 70% to 100% by 2050, Mike Henry said
Aztec Minerals (TSX-V:AZT) announced that it completed the terms of its earn-in and has exercised its option to acquire a 65% interest in the Cervantes porphyry gold-copper project in Sonora, Mexico from Kootenay Silver (TSX-V: KTN), which will retain the remaining 35% interest.
Following the completion of the earn-in, both companies are due to finalize the terms of a joint venture agreement and then have to form a joint venture management committee, review the exploration results to date and approve the next exploration program and budget.
Aztec reports that its exploration work has led to an increase in the number of high-quality targets
“We are pleased to reach this milestone after four years of productive mineral exploration on the Cervantes property,” Joey Wilkins, Aztec CEO, said in a media statement. “The results of our geophysical surveys, geochemical sampling, and geologic mapping have outlined a district-scale porphyry gold-copper system with multiple targets, most of which have never been drilled.”
Wilkins explained that the company carried out a first drill program at the project’s California prospect, which resulted in the discovery of a large, well mineralized gold oxide zone hosted by a strongly altered and brecciated quartz feldspar porphyry intrusion.
“A strong, broad IP chargeability anomaly underlies the California gold oxide zone down to at least 500 meters depth, is interpreted to be an underlying sulfide zone and has not yet been tested by drilling,” the executive said.
Cervantes is a porphyry gold-copper-molybdenum prospect located 160 kilometres east of the city of Hermosillo.
The project sits on the Laramide porphyry belt approximately 265 kilometres southeast of IMMSA’s Cananea porphyry copper-molybdenum mine and 55 kilometres west of Alamos’ Mulatos epithermal gold mine.
As the final transaction was approaching, Aztec’s shares rose from a low of C$0.08 in mid-July to C$0.11 on July 30.
