{"id":1121025,"date":"2019-06-13T13:35:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T13:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=993658"},"modified":"2019-06-13T13:35:35","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T13:35:35","slug":"solgold-strikes-lucky-at-ecuadors-andean-copper-belt-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1121025","title":{"rendered":"SolGold strikes lucky at Ecuador\u2019s Andean copper belt again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s SolGold (LON, TSX:SOLG) announced Thursday<\/a> it had made a new key discovery in the northern part of Ecuador\u2019s Andean copper belt Ecuador, this time on its Sharug project, one of the company\u2019s 12 priority prospects.<\/p>\n

The miner, which holds 72 mineral concessions in Ecuador
\nthrough four subsidiaries, said it had found a new porphyry
\ncopper-gold-molybdenum system \u2014 Santa Martha \u2014 in the northern part of the
\nSharug 2 concession. <\/p>\n

SolGold had previously intercepted a mineralized field in
\nthe same area, the Quillosis prospect, registering grades of up to 39.6 grams
\nof gold per tonne of ore. <\/p>\n

The best returns include one hole with 2.5% copper, 0.2
\ngrams of gold per tonne, and 491 parts of molybdenum per million. In another,
\nSolGold found 0.8% copper, 0.5% grams of gold, and six parts per million of
\nmolybdenum.<\/p>\n

“The Santa Martha copper-gold porphyry target has the
\nareal extent and copper endowment at surface to yield a significant copper gold
\nporphyry orebody and the Quillilosa epithermal gold target is probably related
\nand just as big,” chief executive Nick Mather said.<\/p>\n

Among 10 largest copper, silver and gold mines <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The news comes on the heels of a preliminary study published by Ecuador\u2019s Energy Ministry<\/a> indicating that SolGold\u2019s Cascabel\u00a0copper-gold project, 180 km north of the capital Quito, has the potential to be among the world\u2019s ten largest copper, silver and gold mines.<\/p>\n

The Alpala mineral deposit in particular, which is located in the Cascabel region, \u201ccould become the largest underground silver mine, third-largest gold and sixth-largest copper in the world,\u201d minister Carlos P\u00e9rez said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Independent analysis of the deposit show that underground
\nmining operations at Alpala could extend from 49 to 66 years, with Cascabel
\nboasting mineral reserves of 10.9 million tonnes of copper and more than 23
\nmillion ounces of gold.<\/p>\n

In the first 25 years, forecast production is expected to reach around 207,000 tonnes of copper, 438,000 ounces of gold and 1.4 million ounces of silver, according to official data.<\/p>\n

Local communities, however, recently asked the Constitutional Court for permission to hold a popular referendum<\/a> on mining in the provinces where the SolGold\u2019s 85% owned\u00a0Cascabel project and other wholly owned exploration projects are located.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court is expected to deliver its verdict before the
\nend of the month.<\/p>\n

Attracting top miners<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Over the past two years, SolGold has grabbed headlines as it
\nmade progress on Cascabel, one of the few new major copper-bearing projects
\nexpected to come online in the near future.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining (ASX:
\nNCM), upped its stake in SolGold<\/a> in December to 15.33% from
\n13.83%, to secure a portion of the Cascabel.<\/p>\n

The move further boosted Newcrest\u2019s position in SolGold against
\nNo.2 shareholder, BHP, which in September had bought a 6.1% stake<\/a> in the explorer.<\/p>\n

Miners are scrambling for copper projects amid
\nforecasts that demand for the metal will significantly outstrip supply from
\n2020, due to increasing demand for power generation and electric vehicles
\n(there are 300kg of copper in an electric bus and nine tonnes per windfarm
\nmegawatt).<\/p>\n

According to Colin Hamilton, director of commodities
\nresearch at BMO Capital Markets, the current copper pipeline is the lowest seen this century<\/a>, both in terms of numbers and
\ncapacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter delivery of Cobre Panama we are left with a gap until
\nwe see the next batch of 200ktpa-plus projects in 2022-23. This is when the
\nlikes of Kamoa, Oyu Tolgoi Phase 2, and Quebrada Blanca 2 are likely to offer
\nmeaningful supply growth,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n

Ecuador has gained ground as a mining investment destination
\nin the past two years, thanks to a revised regulatory framework and a major investor engagement campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discovery comes on the heels of a government’s study showing the miner’s Cascabel project will be one of the world’s ten largest copper, silver and gold mines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[539,369,391],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-1121025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-base-metals","category-miningcom","category-precious-metals","tag-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121025"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121139,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121025\/revisions\/1121139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}