Los Andes Copper (TSXV: LA) announced that it has received approval from Chile’s Regional Environmental Committee for drilling to be carried out at the company’s Vizcachitas project.
According to the Canadian miner, this approval contemplates up to 350 drill holes to be completed on up to 124 platforms over the next four years. This is the required drilling needed to complete the pre-feasibility study at Vizcachitas, which is currently underway.
Vizcachitas is one of the largest copper deposits in the Americas not controlled by big companies
The permit also covers further exploration drilling and any other drilling that the project may require as its development advances.
Vizcachitas is a copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit located 120 kilometres north of Santiago. It sits on the same mineral belt as Antofagasta’s Los Pelambres, Codelco’s Andina and El Teniente, as well as Anglo American’s Los Bronces mines.
The project has measured resources of 254.4 million tonnes having a grade of 0.439% copper and indicated resources of approximately 1.03 billion tonnes having a grade of 0.385% copper.
Los Andes Copper plans to build a 110,000-tonne-per-day operation.