Overview
Demand for copper continues to be driven by the ongoing industrialization and advancement of developing economies, together with global decarbonization trends; whilst the supply-side response and development of new copper projects struggle to keep up with projected demand. Consequently, and further exacerbated by the declining production of many major mines, the supply-side shortfall is expected to continue to widen significantly in the coming years, positively impacting copper prices.
Pampa Metals (CSE:PM, OTCQB:PMMCF, FSE:FIRA) owns a portfolio of exploration assets within prolific copper belts in Chile and recently expanded its portfolio into Argentina. The game-changing acquisition of the Piuquenes Copper-Gold Project in Argentina provides Pampa an meaningful presence in proven ‘elephant country’ for copper and gold porphyry deposits.
The Piuquenes Project lies along the San Juan Miocene Belt, which hosts numerous world class deposits, and is proximal to large-scale copper projects, including Glencore’s El Pachon and Aldebaran Resources’ Altar project. The project area consists of nine mining titles spanning 1,880 hectares with excellent access and is about 190 kilometers west of San Juan City. Since its discovery, the Piuquenes Copper-Gold porphyry has remained privately held. Historical intercepts at Piuquenes include 413.5 meters @ 0.47 percent copper and 0.52 grams per ton (g/t) gold. In 2016 Anglo American completed an exploration program at the property in 2016, which included a single, previously unassayed 920-meter diamond drill hole (PIU16 -DDH01). Anglo then reported 258 meters of visual mineralisation from 362 meters and an additional 250 meters from 620 meters.
In December 2023, Pampa Metals reported the results of the PIU16-DDH01 diamond drill hole which include:
558.2 m (362-920.2 m EOH) @ 0.38 percent copper and 0.42 g/t gold and 2.4 g/t silver (0.73 percent CuEq)
Including:
296 m (362 to 658 m) @ 0.5 percent copper and 0.5 g/t gold and 2.7 g/t silver (0.91 percent CuEq),180 m (362-542 m) @ 0.71 percent copper and 0.61 g/t gold and 3.8 g/t silver (1.22 percent CuEq) and 130 m (362-492 m) @ 0.81 percent copper and 0.6 g/t gold and 4 g/t silver (1.31 percent CuEq )
Pampa’s Chilean properties, Block 4, Morros Blancos and Cerro Buenos Aires, are located along the Domeyko and Palaeocene copper belts in northern Chile. Chile has been the top copper producer globally since the early 1980s, and accounts for roughly 27 percent of global copper supply in 2021. The Domeyko Mineral Belt is the world’s most prolific copper belt and is host to three of the world’s top five copper mining districts. The Paleocene Belt also hosts globally significant deposits and operations.
Pampa controls one of the few significant, junior-owned land packages along the Domeyko Belt, providing its shareholders with unique exposure. The company’s Block 4 copper project lies along the Domeyko Belt and hosts several untested, drill-ready targets, defined by geology, geophysics, geochemistry and age-dating carried out by Pampa in recent years.
Company Highlights
Piquenes spans approximately 1,880 hectares with historical intercepts that include 413.5 meters @ 0.47 percent copper and 0.52 grams per ton (g/t) gold.In December 2023, Pampa Metals reported at Piuquenes 130 meters from 362 meters @ 1.31 percent copper equivalent (CuEq), within a broader interval of 558 meters from 362 meters @ 0.73 percent CuEq which remains open at depth.
Key Projects
Piuquenes Copper-Gold Project
The Piuquenes Project consists of nine mining titles covering approximately 1,880 hectares in the prolific San Juan Miocene porphyry belt in Argentina, adjacent (to the north) to Aldebaran Resources’ Altar copper-gold porphyry project, and less than 200 kilometers west of the city of San Juan. Other large porphyry copper projects along the San Juan Miocene belt include Glencore’s El Pachón (Glencore), approximately 30 kilometres to the south, the operating Los Pelambres copper mine (60-percent-owned by Antofagasta), and McEwen Mining’s Los Azules, 50 kilometers to the northeast.
The first evidence of copper oxides at Piuquenes was reported in 1970 by Compañia Minera Aguilar S A, who subsequently completed the first exploration program between 1973 and 1975. Between 1995 and 1997, Inmet Mining Corporation completed a heli-magnetic/radiometric survey, surface geology, rock and soil geochemistry, ground magnetics, PD-IP and eight diamond drill holes for a total of 1,894.2 meters. Subsequently, from 2015 to 2016, Anglo American Argentina completed an exploration program which included a single, previously unassayed 920-meter diamond drill hole (PIU16 -DDH01).
In November 2023, the company entered into an option and joint venture agreement with Compañia Minera Piuquenes S.A (a Panamanian entity) to acquire an 80 percent interest in the Piuquenes porphyry copper-gold project near the globally significant El Pachón (Glencore) and Altar (Aldebaran Resources) projects. The Piuquenes porphyry copper-gold project was first drilled in the 1990s when Inmet Mining (IMC, subsequently acquired by First Quantum in 2013) completed eight diamond drill holes for a total of 1,894.2 meters. Historical intervals of significant copper and gold mineralization at Piuquenes Central include:
413.5 meters (167-580.5 meters) @ 0.47 percent Cu and 0.52 g/t Au (0.87 percent CuEq)*; and558.2 meters (362-920.2 meters EOH) @ 0.38 percent Cu & 0.42 g/t Au & 2.4 g/t Ag (0.73 percent CuEq)* Including 130 meters (362-492 meters) @ 0.81 percent Cu & 0.6 g/t Au & 4 g/t Ag (1.31 percent CuEq)*
The company also reported the assay results from the PIU16-DDH01 drill hole, which included 130 meters from 362 meters @ 1.31 percent CuEq, within a broader interval of 558 meters from 362 meters @ 0.73 percent CuEq which remains open at depth.
Pampa has designed a diamond drill program to be completed across two drilling seasons which will be reviewed and finalized upon the imminent receipt of the assay and QA/QC results of Anglo Americans’ PIU16-DDH01 920-meter diamond drill hole.
Phase 1 consists of a 2,500-meter diamond drill program designed to test the depth and lateral extension of known mineralisation, to be completed between January and April 2024 with assay results expected progressively between March and May 2024. Phase 2 consists of a six-month drill program designed to significantly expand the mineralised envelope and scheduled to commence in October 2024.
Chilean Properties
Buenavista
Pampa Metals’ 100-percent-owned Buenavista project, located along the Domeyko Mineral Belt, hosts several untested porphyry copper targets. The project covers over 6,600 hectares and is located along trend some 110 kilometers south of the major Escondida-Zaldivar copper mining complex. The Buenavista Target hosts dacite porphyry, evidence for phreatomagmatic breccia, quartz-veinlet stockwork, quartz-sulphide breccia, and trenches containing copper-moly-gold-silver anomalies, with complementary geophysical anomalies. Additional targets are largely defined by geophysical anomalies through post-mineral cover and may suggest a cluster of porphyry systems on the Buenavista property.
A 2,100-meter discovery diamond drill campaign was completed in Q2 2023 and intersected hydrothermal alteration and mineralization indicative of the upper parts of a porphyry copper system. Individual samples reported maximum assay grades of 1.86 g/t gold (hole BV02-2023), 30 g/t silver (hole BV02-2023), 0.45 percent copper (hole BV02-2023) and 1,715 ppm molybdenum (hole BV03-2023).
Cerro Buenos Aires
Pampa Metals’ 100-percent-owned, 7,000-hectare Cerro Buenos Aires project is located along the Paleocene Copper-Gold mineral belt in Northern Chile, along trend from the major precious metals district at El Peñon, as well as significant copper deposits such as Spence and Sierra Gorda. The project displays hydrothermal alteration typical of high-sulphidation epithermal and porphyry deposits over about 12 kilometers north-south. Limited historic drilling has cut both minor precious metals and porphyry-related intercepts. Pampa’s work has highlighted a largely covered porphyry copper target in the north, Cerro Chiquitin, based on limited geological outcrops, geophysics, geochemistry, and wide-spaced reconnaissance reverse-circulation drilling. The core target at Cerro Chiquitin remains to be tested with diamond drilling. Other geochemical and geophysical anomalies on the large property, typified by a widespread
Historic exploration campaigns at Cerro Buenos Aires have included geological mapping, geophysical surveys (heli-borne magnetics, heli-borne EM, limited CSAMT), geochemical surveys over portions of the property (soil sampling, limited rock sampling), and limited historic, reconnaissance-style reverse-circulation drilling. Pampa has access to these databases.
Morros Blancos
The 9,000-hectare Morros Blancos project hosts several maar-diatreme complexes prospective for high-sulfidation epithermal gold-silver, as well as the undrilled, sub-cropping, Morro Colorado porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum target. The project is located along the Paleocene Mineral Belt, which hosts major copper deposits in southern Peru and northern Chile, and is immediately east of Austral’s operating Amancaya gold-silver mine, and along trend from the giant El Peñon gold-silver mineral district.
Morros Blancos displays hydrothermal alteration focused in three separate target areas along a 15-kilometer corridor oriented north-northeast, with characteristics of high-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver deposits. Geological features of particular interest include maar-diatreme complexes, other widespread phreatomagmatic events, widespread advanced argillic alteration, and surface geochemical pathfinder anomalies.
Management Team
Joseph van den Elsen – President and CEO
Joseph van den Elsen is a dual Australian/Colombian citizen who currently serves as the chairman of Ronin Resources (ASX:RON) and has held several executive and non-executive positions with listed and unlisted mineral exploration and development companies including Ookami (ASX:OOK), MHM Metals (ASX:VYS.), Ascot Resources (ASX:AZQ:), OAR Resources (ASX:OAR), Arcadia Minerals (ASX:AM7), Arkham Metals and Hampshire Mining. Previous experience also includes serving as an associate director with UBS and holding a comparable position with Goldman Sachs JBWere. He graduated from LaTrobe University with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws and later graduated from the University of Melbourne with a graduate diploma in environment, energy and resources law, and from Curtin University with a graduate diploma in mineral exploration geoscience. Van den Elsen is currently pursuing a Master of Science (mineral economics) through Curtin University.
Mario Orrego – Technical Consultant and QP
Mario Orrego is a geologist and a registered member of the Chilean Mining Commission. He is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
Adrian Manger – Non-executive Chairman
Corporate finance executive with 35 years of minerals industry experience, comprising 20 years in executive and leadership roles with BHP, including the $US1-billion development of the Spence copper mine in Chile. Manger has substantial business experience in South America. He is a co-founder and director of various business enterprises in Australia, Chile and Peru, with private and public financings exceeding $30 million. Manger led or participated in corporate finance transactions involving entity sales to public companies; IPO of SensOre, RTO of Pampa Metals; merger to form CopperEx; financings from HNW’s Investment Bank & Private Equity; and multiple commercial transactions. He holds a public directorship with SensOre (ASX:S3N), leading the application of AI/ML to minerals exploration. He is a founding board member of the Australia Colombia Business Council; former board member of Fundación Buen Punto, a Colombian not-for-profit community sports foundation aimed at utilizing iconic sports to foster sports diplomacy and peace for underprivileged youth and children; and former committee member of the Bogota Bulldogs Australian football club.
Julian Bavin – Director
Julian Bavin has 30 years of technical, operational and commercial experience in mineral exploration gained from work in a wide range of commodities, jurisdictions and cultures, most of which was spent with the Rio Tinto Group in South America, Australia, Indonesia and Europe. From 2000 to 2001, he was the business development executive for the Industrial Minerals Group in Rio Tinto, progressing opportunities in Europe and South America. From 2001 to 2009, he was the exploration director for the Rio Tinto Group in South America and responsible for the teams which identified the potential in a range of projects now in various stages of feasibility, including the Rio Colorado potash and Alter copper/gold projects in Argentina, the Mina Justa, Constancia and La Granja copper projects in Peru, and the Amargosa bauxite project in Brazil. After South America, he moved to London as Rio Tinto’s exploration director responsible for Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Former Soviet Union, with a brief that included the Jadar lithium-borates discovery in Serbia (now in feasibility).
Bavin has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Leicester, a Master of Science from Imperial College in London and is a graduate of the senior executive program at the London Business School.
Bill Tsang – Chief Financial Officer
Bill Tsang brings more than 15 years of accounting experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry focusing on financial reporting, regulatory compliance, internal controls, and corporate finance activities. Tsang has held numerous CFO positions with publicly traded entities. He has worked in public practice providing professional services and advice to publicly traded companies on the NYSE, TSXV and OTC markets, on various public reporting services, such as audit requirements, qualifying transactions for reverse takeover, mergers and acquisitions, and financing transactions. Tsang holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and is a chartered professional accountant and chartered accountant.