Copper market’s biggest whale fuels speculation of a major shift
The world’s single biggest buyer of copper, State Grid Corp. of China, has slowed its purchases of copper wire this year.
HudBay Minerals Inc. (“HudBay”, the “company”) (TSX:HBM)(NYSE:HBM) today announced exploration results from the Pampacancha zone at the company’s Constancia project in Peru. Hole PO-11-072 intersected two main intervals of mineralization, including 121.45 meters of 1.62% copper, 13.62 g/t silver and 1.02 g/t gold (2.4% copper equivalent1) and 87.50 meters of 0.46% copper, 2.30 g/t silver and 0.22 g/t gold (0.65% copper equivalent).
“When we acquired the Constancia project, we knew it was located in a very prospective copper belt characterized by large tonnage projects with higher grades than those found in the already large reserve base in Constancia’s main pit,” said David Garofalo, president and chief executive officer. “Hole 11-072 demonstrates that significant high-grade intervals exist within our 22,500 hectare land position. Given that we are in the early stages of our regional exploration program, we are hopeful we will continue to discover high grade mineralization in new areas outside of the main deposit which provides expansion and grade optimization opportunities for the Constancia project.”
Pampacancha is located 2.5 kilometers from the proposed Constancia open pit. The possible extension of the skarn mineralization intersected in Hole 11-072 is open to the west for up to 350 meters, where Hole 10-017 did not intersect significant mineralization. The area also remains open for up to 500 meters to the south.
Additional drill results and a plan map showing the location of the Pampacancha drill holes can be viewed at http://www.hudbayminerals.com/ourBusiness/exploration.php#.
The 2011 exploration program is designed to test the total extent of mineralization at Pampacancha. The permits required to continue exploration at Pampacancha have been obtained and two drill rigs are scheduled to begin operating and drilling targets the week of June 20, 2011, with a third rig to follow before the end of this month. Priority will be given to testing mineral extensions to the west and south of Hole 11-072.
A geophysical crew is onsite testing resistivity and chargeability anomalies at the nearby Chilloroya South prospect (three kilometers from the proposed Constancia open pit). The total 2011 program of 19 kilometers of line geophysics is nearly half complete with the aim of generating exploration targets for the 2012 exploration program.
Pre-construction activities at Constancia are ongoing and the engineering firm Ausenco has been engaged to conduct basic engineering and prepare for the procurement of long-lead equipment with the goal of being in a position to make a construction decision by early 2012. Geotechnical and condemnation drilling is continuing with results meeting expectations to date.
Read the full news release here.
