Apr 26 2016
Cordoba Minerals Corp. (Cordoba or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Company has received the three-dimensional (3D) inversion results from the phase one Typhoon Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey conducted by Cordoba's joint venture partner, High Power Exploration (HPX), at the San Matias copper-gold project in Colombia.
Figure 2: Map showing the Typhoon chargeability at San Matias
The recently completed Typhoon IP survey covered the Montiel porphyry discovery, where previous drilling intersected 101 metres of 1.0% copper and 0.65 g/t gold, and the northern part of the Alacran skarn discovery where recent drilling intersected 111 metres of 1.01% copper and 0.38 g/t gold. Results demonstrate a strong correlation between the thick drill intercepts of copper-gold mineralization and the sulphide chargeability targets identified by Typhoon. The survey only covered 7.5 square kilometres of a 200-square-kilometre prospective area for copper-gold mineralization (Figure 1).
Mario Stifano, President and CEO of Cordoba, commented: "The initial Typhoon IP results are extremely encouraging as they indicate multiple large and potentially significant sulphide chargeability targets, highlighting the potential for the San Matias Project to host a tier one, district-scale copper-gold porphyry system. We plan to rapidly expand the Typhoon survey to the north and south of the currently surveyed areas as the significant mineralized trends and targets remain open. Porphyry exploration is a long and complex process, but we have the ideal partner in HPX."
"The chargeability targets identified by Typhoon at the San Matias Project are among the most compelling that we have seen in surveys conducted by HPX on three continents," said Eric Finlayson, President of HPX. "The size of the chargeability anomalies and their location within the richly-endowed Mid Cauca Belt are strong indicators of the copper-gold porphyry potential of this area."
Cordoba and HPX are jointly finalizing plans for the next phase of the exploration program at the San Matias Project. Plans include an expansion of the Typhoon survey to the north and south of the currently surveyed areas; follow-on drilling at the Alacran discovery and at high priority targets defined by the initial Typhoon survey; and further detailed airborne magnetic surveys.
The 3D chargeability model generated by inverting the Typhoon IP survey data predicts the expected electrical properties of the rocks. In this area, zones of high chargeability typically correlate with the occurrence of disseminated sulfide minerals. The chargeable areas are outlined in Figure 2 at about 200 metres depth. Integration of these results with magnetic modelling and analysis of the substantial mapping, geochemical, and structural databases has led to a new set of targets for testing in upcoming drilling programs.
Alacran Copper-Gold System
The Alacran copper-gold discovery is approximately two kilometres southwest of the Company's Montiel porphyry copper-gold discovery where recent drilling intersected 101 metres of 1.0% copper and 0.65 g/t gold, and two kilometres northwest of the Costa Azul porphyry copper-gold discovery where recent drilling intersected 87 metres of 0.62% copper and 0.51 g/t gold. The copper-gold mineralization at Alacran is associated with stratabound replacement of a marine volcano-sedimentary sequence in the core of a faulted antiformal fold structure. Recent drilling at Alacran intersected 111 metres of 1.01% copper and 0.38 g/t gold (see Cordoba's April 11, 2016 news release for details of recent drill results). The Typhoon IP survey covered only the northern extension of the 1.3-kilometre mineralized trend at Alacran.
The deposit comprises moderately to steeply-dipping stratigraphy that is mineralized as a series of sub-parallel replacement-style (or skarn) zones and associated disseminations. The copper-gold mineralization is composed of multiple overprinting hydrothermal events with the main mineralizing phase comprised of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and pyrite that appears to overprint a large-scale early magnetite metasomatic event.
About San Matias Project
The newly discovered San Matias Copper-Gold Project comprises a 20,000-hectare land package on the inferred northern extension of the richly endowed Mid Cauca Copper-Gold Belt in Colombia. The project contains several known areas of porphyry copper-gold mineralization, copper-gold skarn mineralization and vein-hosted, gold-copper mineralization. Porphyry mineralization at the San Matias Project incorporates high-grade zones of copper-gold mineralization hosted by diorite porphyries containing secondary biotite alteration and various orientations of sheeted and stockwork quartz-magnetite veins with chalcopyrite and bornite. The copper-gold skarn mineralization at Alacran appears to be stratabound within a marine volcano-sedimentary sequence. District-scale alteration and the abundance of mineralized showings at San Matias show early-stage exploration similarities to other Tier One copper-gold porphyry districts along the Andean Porphyry Copper Belt.
About Typhoon
Typhoon is a proprietary IP and electromagnetic induction (EM) survey transmitter that provides an unprecedented combination of clean signal and high power to provide more accurate mapping of the electrical properties of the earth. It has been applied in surveys on projects in three continents to identify prospective mineralized targets.
The phase one Typhoon 3D DC-IP survey covered 7.5 square kilometres of the San Matias project area, including the key target areas at Montiel East, Montiel West and the northern section of Alacran. In total, 681-line kilometres of high-quality DC resistivity and IP data were acquired across the survey area during a 43-day survey campaign involving SJ Geophysics from Vancouver.
3D conductivity and chargeability models were generated from the data by Vancouver-based Computational Geosciences Inc. The results were integrated with the existing geological information, helicopter- and ground-based magnetometer surveys and 3D-magnetic models to generate new drill targets. The results show some of the strongest chargeability anomalies ever mapped with a Typhoon IP survey, at depths ranging from 50 metres to 500 metres.
Technical Information
The technical information in this release has been reviewed, verified and compiled by Christian J. Grainger, PhD, a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101. Dr. Grainger is a geologist with over 15 years in the minerals mining, consulting, exploration and research industries. Dr. Grainger is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) and Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).
All samples have been prepared and assayed at ALS laboratory in Medellin, Colombia with gold assays being carried out as 50-gram Fire-Assays with AAS finish and all trace elements and base-metals being assayed using four Acid Digest with ICP-MS finish. The copper equivalent values have been calculated using a US$1,250 per ounce gold price and US$2.25 per pound copper price. The company utilizes an industry-standard QA/QC program. HQ and NQ diamond drill-core is sawn in half with one-half shipped to a sample preparation lab. The remainder of the core is stored in a secured storage facility for future assay verification. Blanks, duplicates and certified reference standards are inserted into the sample stream to monitor laboratory performance and a portion of the samples are periodically checked for assayed result quality.
Joint Venture Agreement
The San Matias Project is a joint venture between Cordoba and HPX, a private mineral exploration company founded by mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland. HPX has entered Phase One of the Joint Venture Agreement whereby HPX can earn a 25% interest in the San Matias Project by spending C$6 million. In Phase Two of the Agreement, HPX can earn a 51% interest in the San Matias Project by spending an additional C$10.5 million and can earn up to a 65% interest in the project by carrying it to feasibility.
About High Power Exploration
HPX is a privately owned, metals-focused exploration company deploying proprietary in-house geophysical technologies to rapidly evaluate buried geophysical targets. The HPX technology cluster comprises geological and geophysical systems for targeting, modelling, survey optimization, acquisition, processing and interpretation. HPX has a highly experienced board and management team led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Friedland and co-chaired by Ian Cockerill, a former Chief Executive Officer of Gold Fields Ltd. HPX has control over approximately 32.4 million common shares, representing approximately 37.3% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Cordoba.