Minerals exploration company Red Metal Resources Ltd. (RMES), which focuses on acquiring, exploring and developing copper-gold properties in Chile, reported phenomenal sample assay results from its Mateo project that further validates the company's expectations of the property's amazing potential. The company is entering an exciting stage in its development as it is finding some "fantastic" drill targets in Chile, which in addition to ranking as a world-class prolific copper-gold producing country and being well-known for its monster deposits, is recognized for being among the few mining hubs boasting a stable political environment. The combination of these factors, alongside the recent high-grade results, stokes a sense of optimism over Red Metal’s current ventures.
The two chief projects, Farellon and Mateo, are situated in the prolific Candelaria iron oxide copper-gold belt in northern Chile, which hosts major industry players such as Freeport McMoRan and Anglo American; two companies that exemplify the rich possibilities beneath the surface in this zone. Red Metal’s CEO, VP of Exploration and geoscientist, Caitlin Jeff’s explains the unique benefits of exploration in Chile and breaks down the company’s most up-to-date survey.
EQ: Can you talk about the Red Metal's Mateo property, and the promising results from the most recent sample assays?
Caitlin Jeffs: Red Metal recently completed a detailed geological mapping program on our Mateo property. We had mapped small portions of the property previously and our interpretation of what we knew of the geology was that we had the potential for a Candelaria type geological setting. During our recent mapping program we confirmed a lot of the interpretations we had so far and we identified nine mineralized zones as potential targets for future drilling.
EQ: Can you explain what that means for an investor watching the company's progress?
CJ: Basically, we’re getting much higher grades than the regional deposits at a lower elevation, meaning we're closer to all of the cities and resources that are necessary to run a mine. The access is better.
EQ: To help put this into context, how do these results compare against typical, industry-standard findings? Are there reasons to be excited based on these results?
CJ: In Chile, the usual deposits are low grade but they're monster. We’re getting up to a gram of copper and a half a gram of gold. The results from our sampling for copper were very in line with copper deposits in the region. There are some high grade results up to 10.3 percent copper and some lower grades, but really an average of about 1 percent over all the zones we looked at. The amount of gold in the sample results is what is out of line with typical deposits in the area. The property has been mined historically in a few areas and from the records we have found there was an average grade of 0.7g/t gold. We mapped two new gold zones with numerous high grade gold samples with up to 21 g/t on one zone. Finding this results at low elevations is even more advantageous.
EQ: Looking at the report, what are the numbers that should pop out most to those following Red Metal? Why?
CJ: The numbers that should stand out are actually all of them. We consistently found strong gold and copper numbers through the entire property in every mineralized zone we found. Of the 138 samples we collected on the property, 36 samples returned gold grades greater than 1.0g/t and 76 returned copper grades of greater than 0.6 percent. These samples were collected over an approximately six kilometer strike length. The grades we're seeing are high considering the elevation.
EQ: The Mateo property has a very rich history for copper and gold. Can you tell us what attracted Red Metal to it in the first place?
CJ: We believe the Chilean coastal cordillera still holds amazing potential. When compared with other major mining belts in the world such as Ontario, Canada’s Archean greenstone belts, the Chilean Coastal Cordillera, and specifically the Candelaria IOCG (Iron Oxide Copper Gold) belt is incredibly under-explored. We looked at the belt and tried to find areas with similar geological setting to Freeport McMoRan’s Candelaria mine. We eventually targeted the area around Mateo and when we got out to see what was there we found numerous historical mines in the area. Candelaria started out looking very much like Mateo, with a scattered artisanal mines on surface mining the “smoke” while the “real” mine was beneath them.
EQ: Do these findings help to validate your original expectations of the property's potential?
CJ: Absolutely. If anything, we are more excited because we are seeing so much on the surface it shows us that whatever the mineralizing system was in the area, it was obviously a very robust system that was capable of leaving behind a monster-sized deposit. We took so long putting together a portfolio and developing our theories. Now that we have gone out and taken a first crack, everything has come out as positive as we speculated. We’ve gotten our feet on the ground, and all of our theories are turning out to be true.
EQ: Are there any strategic initiatives that the company has in the works or planned for down the road to capitalize on this?
CJ: We are hoping to get back out in the field to complete a geophysics survey this winter and follow that up with a drill program. We’re always looking at new properties. We have a group that’s in Chile permanently and is always looking at properties.
EQ: As an exploration-stage company, much of the value proposition that Red Metal provides is based on the potential of your projects.What kind of impact do you think this will have on how the company is perceived going forward?
CJ: Every bit of work on an exploration property advances the project. We have advanced Mateo to the point where we have some fantastic drill targets, which is the really exciting stage of any exploration project.
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