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Projects
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Escondida Project - Copiapo Chile
Summary
The Escondida precious metals project is located in Chile's 3rd Region, (or Atacama Region), 20 kilometers south of the port city of Caldera, and approximately 65 kilometers from Copiapo, the region's capital, along 40 kilometers of the paved Pan American highway, and 25 kilometers of improved graded secondary roads, all of which are maintained by the Chilean government.
Escondida - Surface Sampling |
Escondida Project |
Atacama is a mining region, with annual exports of mineral commodities exceeding 1 billion dollars. The region has excellent infrastructure for mining projects, including major vendors for mining supplies and machinery, a skilled labor force, and over 400 years of mining history. The regional Atacama airport is only 20 kilometers from the project, with direct daily jet service to Santiago and major mining centers to the north, from two airlines operating 8 daily flights.
The mineral exploration concessions consist of exploration and exploitation mineral exploration claims acquired into a group of limited liability companies, which are co-owned through a mixture of U.S., Mexican, and Chilean partners. The mining claims cover approximately 4,942 hectares. The mineral target consists of a sedimentary exhalative sulfide deposit of marine origin, which has been uplifted through block faulting to form a low lying continental shelf. The mean elevational average of the target mineralized zone is less than 150 meters - 500 feet.
Sulfide mineralization at or near the surface consists almost entirely of finely disseminated pyrite, in banded horizontal beds. The beds are commonly a few centimeters to 10's of centimeters in thickness, to hundreds of meters and possibly kilometers in length and width. The surface oxidation zone is typically only about a meter in thickness. On the western edge of the mineralized zone, wind and water have carved the mineralized beds to a depth of 20 to 30 meters. The potential target zone is 3 kms x 5 kms, containing in excess of 500 million, to perhaps 1 billion metric tons.
Infrastructure
- Pilot Plant. A small pilot plant for metallurgical testing has been erected. Plant resources include capture of localized subterranean waters, at a rate of 30 liters per minute. Also, storage, mixing and recycling ponds with capacity in excess of 2 million liters. Fiberglass processing tanks have been erected in 4 processing lines, with a total capacity of 30,000 liters. Tankage can be employed for recovery of precious metals either through activated carbon, or as is now being done through reverse electrolysis. Power is generated on site and distributed to various pumps, motors, and lighting. Workers quarters, field office, and storage areas are also included.
- Roads. The property area is served by a number of improved and maintained roads, bounded on the east by the Pan American highway, and on the west by the improved gravel and dirt roads leading from Puerto Viejo to Caldera, and to Bahia Inglesa, respectively. On the south portion of the property are two improved, graded dirt roads, leading from the Pan American highway to Puerto Viejo, each of which straddle one side Copiapo River Canyon. All of these roads are maintained by the regional government. More than 90% of the property is accessible to in either two or four wheel drive.
Escondida Regional view of the property |
- Electricity. Line power is located some 15 kilometers (straight distance) from the current pilot plant site, near the Atacama Regional airport. The airport is served from a substation near Caldera. Previous inquiries to the regional electrical supplier indicated a willingness to extend a supply line to the property as production merits.
- Water. Localized water recovered at the plant site appears to be limited, probably no more than 1 liter per second available. The water is saline (11,000 ppm's dissolved salts). In addition to the localized water recovered at the plant, two other sources of water are readily available. The Copiapo River runs through the southern portion of the property, and is located some 5 kilometers from the pilot plant. River resource water emptying into the Puerto Viejo bay are probably in the 100 to 500 liters per second range, depending on how much seepage occurs in the subterranean aquifer. The ocean is only a few kilometers distance from the plant site.
- Copiapo. Some of the world's largest mining companies have operations which are headquartered in Copiapo, including Phelps Dodge, Placer Dome-Barrick, Anglo American, Codelco Chile, and so on. Enami runs a state custom smelter. A full range of local support services exists for the mining industry, much of which is backstopped either from Santiago or Antofagasta.
- Communications. Cell phone coverage exists on much of the property, including at the pilot plant. Copiapo has a full range of communication services, including internet, cable, and satellite.
- Labor force. Metropolitan Copiapo has a population approaching 150,000. The countries oldest mining university is located here. The labor force is sufficient and well educated for management, supervisory and labor positions.
Geological Settings
The Escondida deposit is a former marine sediment which was mineralized while under water. Regional block faulting uplifted the sediments forming a low continental shelf. Hostrock consists almost entirely of the granodioritic coastal batholith, which forms an uneven basement onto which the sediments were deposited from continental runoff. The batholith protrudes as occasional low lying hills, as in part identified (as gdr) in Figures 1 and 2.
Escondida - Surface Sampling |
The Copiapo River was the largest regional contributor of sediments for the deposit. Fine and medium grained sediments expelled into the ocean during flood runoff were sorted and carried by the predominantly northward flowing currents (Humboldt) where they settled out across the marine batholith.
Concurrent with the deposition of the sediments, mineralized fluids discharged onto the seafloor through localized faults and fractures, forming extensive stratiform deposits of chemical precipitates, in this case largely sulfides of pyrite. The discharge zones for seafloor mineralization were probably simple fumarole conduits, or possibly black smoker chimneys. . Precious metals of gold, silver, and platinum group metals found within the deposit are intimately associated with the pyrites.
The sediments are of a sufficiently young age, probably 500,000 to 2 MM years, that they are largely pliable and unhardened. The top 4 to 5 meters can be easily trenched, and bottom layers can be ripped. A large section of the western portions of the deposit contain a top layer of blow sand, from 0.5 to 1 meters in thickness. Underneath the blow sand lies a layer of former reef type material bound with medium to small rounded rocks, generally 20 to 30 centimeters in thickness. The localized water captured at the plant site flows through this porous layer as seepage.
The mineralized sediments are found under the reef layer as banded, horizontal units. At the plant site, trenching has exposed these units to a depth of 5 meters. West of the plant site, the layers are exposed to depths of 10 to as much as 30 meters. Five kilometers to the northeast of the plant site, a small basin has been locally block faulted, exposing sediments to a depth of 12 meters. To the south, the Copiapo River has cut a channel exposing sediments at several different points which vary in depth from 10 to 25 meters.
Iron content and oxidized iron staining indicate variations in mineral intensity. Proximity to fault and discharge zones should significantly increase precious metals values. The exploration targets found within the property are ideal for I.P. testing. Mineral resources can be easily delineated through trenching and drilling.
Property
Zoro has acquired a 100% interest in approximately 4,942 hectares of exploration property.
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