Dec 11 2015
NGEx Resources Inc. ("NGEx" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") that will evaluate the potential to develop two of the Company's large copper/gold deposits, Los Helados and Josemaria, together as one project (the "Integrated Project"). The PEA is nearing completion and is expected to be available early in the New Year.
Over the last several years the Company has made three major grass roots discoveries which have grown from raw prospects into some of the largest undeveloped copper-gold-silver resources in the world. The total combined Indicated Resource for the Integrated Project is currently:
- 23.7 billion pounds of copper and 16.2 million of ounces gold, 120 million ounces of silver plus Inferred Resources of 7.7 billion pounds of copper and 4.4 million ounces of gold, 44 million ounces of silver.(1,2)
The upcoming PEA will be an important step towards realizing our long term vision of developing these discoveries as a mining district with several deposits feeding a central processing plant. The Integrated Project could represent one of the largest and most important potential new mine developments in the region in decades.
The two deposits are located approximately 12 kilometres apart (Figure 1) and the Integrated Project contemplates sequential development of the Josemaria deposit as an open pit mine followed by the block cave underground mining of the Los Helados deposit. Material from both deposits would be processed at a centrally located processing facility. Initial development is expected to target the highest grade portion of the Josemaria deposit which is a near surface zone of supergene enriched mineralization shown in red on the attached section (Figure 2). This mineralization occurs along a ridge and the topography is favorable for open pit mining. As the highest grade material at Josemaria is depleted, production is anticipated to transition to the high grade core of the Los Helados deposit shown in red in the attached section (Figure 3). The higher grade portions of the two deposits contain a combined Indicated mineral resource of:
- 740 million tonnes(1,2) of 0.50% copper; 0.26 grams/tonne gold, 1.58 grams/tonne silver for a copper equivalent grade of 0.69% CuEq(2) at a cut off grade of 0.6% CuEq.
See Figure 4 for comparison with other deposits in the region.
The stand-alone Los Helados PEA completed in October of 2014(1) contemplated a significant mining operation that would produce an annual average of 115,000 tonnes of copper, 133,000 ounces of gold, and 675,000 ounces of silver over a 26 year mine life. Current engineering studies are assessing opportunities to increase annual metal production and to exploit more of the overall resource and thereby extend the mine life by using a declining cut-off grade strategy later in the mine plan.
In addition to Josemaria and Los Helados the Company holds a 100% interest in the Filo del Sol Project located approximately 15 km southwest of Josemaria. The Filo del Sol Project is associated with a very large area of hydrothermal alteration extending over 18 km2 which is approximately 3-4 times the size of the alteration zones associated with Los Helados and Josemaria. Drilling to date has tested less than 20% of the overall alteration zone. Despite the relatively limited testing Filo del Sol hosts a recently updated Inferred Resource at a cut off grade of 0.3% CuEq
- 381 million tonnes at a grade of 0.39% copper, 0.33 g/t gold and 12 g/t silver for a copper equivalent grade of 0.69%(3).
This resource contains 3.3 billion pounds of copper, 4.0 million ounces of gold, and 149.8 million ounces of silver and the potential to further expand it is considered excellent.
Filo del Sol is a very large mineralized system in which overlapping mineralizing events combined with weathering effects, including supergene enrichment, have created several different styles of mineralization. These include high grade gold and silver hosted in veins and hydrothermal breccias, stratabound high-grade silver- copper, and copper and gold porphyry mineralization which includes zones of supergene enrichment (Figure 5). Drilling to date has focused on the stratabound mineralization which accounts for most of the current resource but represents a small proportion of the overall mineralized system. The other styles of mineralization have seen very limited testing and represent highly prospective exploration targets
1Los Helados Technical Report dated November 24, 2014 and titled "Los Helados Cu-Au Deposit Atacama Region III Chile NI 43-101 Technical Report on Preliminary Economic Assessment". The Los Helados resource estimate has an effective date of September 19, 2014. At a 0.33% CuEq cut off, the Los Helados resource is 2,099 million tonnes at a grade of 0.38% copper, 0.15 g/t gold, and 1.37 g/t silver for a copper equivalent grade of 0.48% in the Indicated Resource category plus 827 million tonnes at a grade of 0.32% copper, 0.10 g/t gold, and 1.32 g/t silver for a copper equivalent grade of 0.39% in the Inferred Resource category.
2Josemaria Technical Report dated November 13, 2013 and amended March 24, 2014 and titled "Second updated mineral resource estimate for the Josemaria Property San Juan Province Argentina". The Josemaria resource estimate has an effective date of September 27, 2013. At a 0.30% CuEq cut off the Josemaria resource is 789 million tonnes at a grade of 0.35% copper, 0.24 g/t gold, and 1.08 g/t silver for a copper equivalent grade of 0.53% in the Indicated Resource category plus 315 million tonnes at a grade of 0.28% copper, 0.17 g/t gold, and 0.92 g/t silver for a copper equivalent grade of 0.41% in the Inferred Resource category.
Both of these reports are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR www.sedar.com.
3The Filo del Sol resource estimate with an effective date of August 26, 2015 was completed by James N. Gray, P.Geo. of Advantage Geoservices Ltd., an Independent Qualified Person. At a 0.30% CuEq cut off the Filo del Sol resource is 381 million tonnes at a grade of 0.39% copper, 0.33 g/t gold and 12 g/t silver for a copper equivalent grade of 0.69% in the Inferred Resource category. An NI 43-101 Technical Report will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), within 45 days of the Company's news release dated November 23, 2015.
Qualified Persons
Mr. Bob Carmichael, B.A.Sc, P.Eng., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Carmichael is Vice President, Exploration for the Company and has reviewed and verified that the technical disclosure contained in this news release is accurate.