World Copper Ltd., headquartered in Vancouver, BC, is a Canadian resource company focused the exploration and development of its copper porphyry projects: Escalones and Cristal in Chile, and Zonia in Arizona. Two of these projects have estimated resources with significant soluble copper mineralization, and there are at least two other copper porphyry targets with exciting potential to expand the resource base. The Zonia project is being acquired as part of the previously announced merger transaction with Cardero Resource Corp.
About Escalones: The Escalones porphyry-skarn copper-gold project has estimated inferred resources of 426 million tonnes of 0.367% total copper within the oxidized zone, based on nearly 25,000m of drill core from 53 holes. The 3.45 billion pounds of copper should be amenable to heap leaching with an average recovery of 71%. The Company is focused on exploring the Mancha Amarilla target immediately to the south of the existing resource. In addition, three significant hydrothermal alteration zones, each measuring between 2,000m and 3,000m in diameter, lie 8-10km to the north of the main discovery.
Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability as there is no certainty that all or any part of the resources will be converted into reserves. Inferred resources are that part of a mineral resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling. It is reasonably expected that the inferred resources could be upgraded to indicated resources with continued exploration.
About Zonia: The Zonia project is in Yavapai County, Arizona, and consists of 261 mineral claims and additional surface rights, all totaling 4,279.55 acres. It is a near-surface, copper-oxide resource and a brownfields site having already been mined in the late 1960s and ’70s. The Project is at the PEA level and has been significantly de-risked with over 50,000 metres of drilling completed to date and with substantial amounts of detailed engineering completed. Further details can be found here.
The World Copper team has a unique skill in navigating the mining sector within Chile, with some members having worked in the country for more than 40 years and with discovery success.