Copper Mountain Mining Corp. [CMMC-TSX; CPPMF; C6C-ASX] shares advanced Tuesday September 8 after the company released positive drilling results from the New Ingerbelle copper-gold satellite deposit in southern British Columbia.
The satellite deposit is located 1 km west of the company’s flagship Copper Mountain Mine. Recent exploration was designed to test the depth extension of the deposit. The goal was to define sufficient reserves to add another 10 years of production to Copper Mountain’s life-of-mine plan.
On Tuesday, the company announced results from two drill holes (1,538 metres). It said drill hole 201G-01intercepted 585 metres of 0.33% copper, 0.21 g/t gold, and 0.45 g/t silver, including 213 metres of 0.50% copper, 0.29 g/t gold and 0.63 g/t silver.
In addition, hole 201G-02 intercepted 120 metres of 0.69% copper, 0.37 g/t gold and 1.55 g/t silver. Both holes terminate in the ore.
These intercepts suggest that the mineralization extends for at least an additional 250 metres below the current pit design. Also, the grades intercepted are above the average reserve grade of the deposit.
“We are nowhere near understanding the extent of mineralization at New Ingerbelle,” said Copper Mountain President and CEO Gil Clausen.
New Ingerbelle has reserves of 193 million tonnes, grading 0.24% copper, 0.15 g/t gold, and 0.48 g/t silver, containing 1.0 billion pounds of copper, 929,000 ounces of gold and 3.0 million ounces of silver.
Copper Mountain shares rallied on the news, rising 6.02% or $0.05 to 88 cents on volume of 612,432. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 90 cents and 28 cents.
Copper Mountain’s flagship asset is the 75%-owned Copper Mountain mine near the town of Princeton. The Vancouver-based company is working in a strategic alliance with Mitsubishi Materials Corp., who owns 25% of the mine. The Copper Mountain mine produces about 90 million pounds of copper equivalent annually with a very large resource that remains open laterally and at depth.