Mantau Copper Gold Project, Chile
The Mantau project is located 70 kilometers northeast of the Antofagasta city and 40 kilometers east of the Mejillones port, in northern Chile. It is favorably located with excellent year round access being at low elevation 1,500 meters above sea level. The project comprising 45 square kilometers is owned 100% by Rugby and was acquired through the company’s acquisition of Proximo Resources in 2021.
The project is situated in the Coastal Belt of Northern Chile which hosts several large copper deposits genetically and spatially related to the Atacama Fault System. This metallogenic belt includes manto-type Cu-Ag, porphyry copper, and iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) orebodies. Mantos Blancos and Antucoya (Figure 1) are the largest mines with annual production of around 70,000t of fine copper. Marimaca Copper Corp has also outlined a significant copper oxide resource nearby and more recent drilling has shown extended high grade copper mineralization in the underlying sulfide zone (Figure 1).
Figure1. Location showing major copper mines and deposits.
No environmental or community issues are known to exist within this historical mining area. There is no record of recent previous systematic exploration within the project, although there has been previous small scale mining of oxide copper mineralization. Most of the project is covered by regolith with only limited outcrops (Figure 2).
Early work by Rugby geologists has shown the presence of mineralized hydrothermal breccias along with widespread alteration and veining areas (Figure 2). Sampling of old workings returned values up to 16.7% Cu and 5.91 g/t Au. Geologists also noted extensive specularite alteration of the host-rock which is typical of the other IOCG deposits in the region.
Old Copper workings
Small shaft in an abandoned working
High grade copper-gold mineralization
Hydrothermally veined ore from old mine dump assayed 5.6% copper, 2.94g/t gold
Paul Joyce, COO and a “qualified person” within the definition of that term in NI 43-101, has supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this presentation. Some of the information presented is historical in nature and the Company will be required to do further assessment of this data. Certain information contained herein can be considered forward looking. Read the Cautionary Statement.