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ATEX Resources (TSXV: ATX) received conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange for its acquisition of the Valeriano porphyry copper-gold project, located in Chile.
The decision means that ATEX shares will again commence trading on the TSXV on December 5, 2019.
ATEX, through its Chilean subsidiary ATEX Valeriano SpA., may earn up to a 100% interest in the Valeriano property by means of an option agreement with Sociedad Contractual Minera Valleno, an arm’s length Chilean private company
“With the conditional approval of the Valeriano copper-gold project acquisition in hand, we can start making the necessary preparations to commence exploration activities in the new year,” said Carl Hansen, CEO of the Vancouver-based miner, in a media statement. “The previous Hochschild exploration activities, including geophysics and limited drilling, demonstrated the presence of a large porphyry system at Valeriano. It is our intent to commence a diamond drilling program in early 2020 to establish the potential of a copper-gold porphyry system.”
Valeriano is located in Chile’s prolific El Indio Belt, 30 kilometres north of Barrick/Shadong’s Veladero mine and immediately south and adjacent to Antofagasta/Barrick’s El Encierro project.
According to ATEX, the project overlies a large copper-gold molybdenum-bearing porphyry system which has only been partially tested by three diamond drill holes completed in 2013 by Hochschild Mining.
“Two of the drill holes intersected a potassic altered granodiorite porphyry including drill hole VAL13-14 which returned 1,194 metres grading 0.52% copper, 0.24 grams per tonne gold and 36 parts per million molybdenum or 0.73% Cu equivalent and included 416 metres of granodiorite porphyry which graded 0.67% Cu, 0.32 g/t Au and 31 ppm Mo for 0.94% Cu eq. The drill hole ended in mineralization,” Hansen said in the press brief.
