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Solaris Resources (TSX: SLS) announced on Tuesday a significant new discovery from its maiden drilling of the Warintza South target at its Warintza project in southeastern Ecuador.
Warintza is a 268 km2 property located approximately 40 km north of the $1.4 billion Mirador mine, which was put into production by a Chinese state-owned consortium in 2019.
Warintza South represents an entirely separate porphyry deposit, located approximately 3 km south of the Warintza Central zone that has been the focus of the company’s resource expansion drilling efforts to date.
The highlight of initial drilling at Warintza South was SLSS-01, the first hole ever drilled at the target.
SLSS-01 was drilled vertically and returned 606m of 0.41% CuEq of continuous porphyry copper mineralization from near surface, within a broader interval of 755m of 0.36% CuEq, marking what Solaris calls a “significant new discovery” at the project.
According to the company, Warintza South is reflected by a high-conductivity anomaly over twice the size of Warintza Central, illustrating the very broad proportions of this newly discovered porphyry system.
SLSS-01 targeted an exposure of leached capping within this anomaly; an ongoing sampling program significantly expanded the geochemical anomaly and shifted its core to the northeast.
Follow-up drilling targeting the interpreted core of the porphyry system is set to begin after additional drill platforms are prepared based on this recent mapping and sampling work refining the target, and a dedicated exploration camp is set up to support a ramp-up in activities.
“We are delighted to have made a significant new discovery at Warintza South, with the first ever hole returning a long interval of well-mineralized copper porphyry. The multi-km dimensions of the target present a large-scale opportunity,” Jorge Fierro, vice president of exploration, said in a news release.
Warintza South is the fourth major copper discovery within the 7 km x 5 km porphyry cluster on the Warintza property, with the adjacent Yawi and Caya targets still to be tested.
Shares of Solaris Resources rose 3.6% by 12:15 p.m. EDT, giving the company a market capitalization of C$1.6 billion ($1.28bn).
