Project Pipeline
Once permits are in place, work programs will resume within the 1,050 km2 prospective Gold-Copper belt in Northern Peru, with initial focus on further delineating targets in the Cobrecon porphyry cluster. Follow-up rock and soil sampling from Cobrecon Este are planned, as well as additional silt sampling to south near an area of anomalous reconnaissance silt samples north of target T6.The Ponce de Atunez concession block, located five kilometres northeast of the Taricori block, will be the focus of regional silt sampling, with combined reconnaissance rock sampling and mapping. This concession block is 10 kilometres east of the Fruta del Norte epithermal gold deposit in Ecuador, and has similar geology.
Airborne geophysical data is a key component of Minera Afrodita's exploration strategy. This survey has generated 18 targets, of which only the first few have been tested on the ground. The targets are identified based on their anomalous magnetic and EM signatures. The magnetic highs with associated EM conductors can be magnetite-pyrite skarn mineralization. Where there is magnetite skarn, there can be associated porphyry mineralization and possible sediment-hosted disseminated mineralization. This association worked at Lucero and Cobrecon, the former having skarn mineralization and the latter porphyry Cu-Au mineralization.
The first step in verifying the targets as prospective gold-copper mineralization is to collect close-spaced silt samples and reconnaissance rock samples from the creeks draining the anomaly. Each target will be first silt and, once results are received, soil samples and continuous rock samples will be collected from the most geochemically anomalous targets. The most robust soil and rock sample anomalies will then be drilled.
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