BHP buys into SolGold’s Cascabel copper-gold porphyry

Posted by Daniel Gleeson on 5th September 2018

BHP has entered into an agreement with Guyana Goldfields to acquire its 6.1% interest in SolGold, the majority owner and operator of the Cascabel porphyry copper-gold project in Ecuador.

BHP Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Mackenzie, said the investment in SolGold would give BHP exposure to a high quality copper exploration project in Ecuador, which is a highly prospective location for BHP. “Consistent with our positive long-term outlook, copper is a key exploration focus for BHP as we seek to replenish our resource base and grow this important business.”

The Cascabel deposit is located in the Imbabura province of northwest Ecuador. It lies just off a main road, a three hour drive north of Ecuador’s capital city, Quito. The climate zone is tropical-savannah and vegetation is tropical forest with a well-developed soil horizon. Topography rises from elevations of 900 to 2,200 m and the moderate to steep landscape is incised by four large drainage complexes.

To date SolGold has completed geological mapping, soil sampling, rock saw channel sampling, geochemical and spectral alteration mapping over 25 km2, along with an additional 9 km2 of IP and 14 km2 Magnetotelluric “Orion” surveys over the Alpala cluster and other targets at Aguinaga, Parambas, Tandayama-America, Moran and Chinambicito. This exploration activity has identified 15 potential porphyry centres at Cascabel, at Alpala Central, Alpala Northwest, Alpala Southeast, Hematite Hill, Alpala East, Alpala West, Alpala South, Moran, Trivinio, Carmen, Cristal, Aguinaga, Tandayama-America, and Parambas.

SolGold published its maiden Mineral Reserve Estimate for Alpala in January 2018.  The MRE is reported in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 2014). The highlights include:

  • Estimate across both Indicated and Inferred classifications totals a current 1,080 Mt @ 0.68% CuEq (7.4 Mt CuEq) at 0.3% CuEq cutoff, some 40% of which is in the Indicated category (by tonnage)
  • Contained metal content totals a current 5.2 Mt Cu and 12.3 Moz Au, some 45% of which is within the Indicated category (by contained metal)
  • Higher grade core has a current 120 Mt @ 1.8% CuEq (2.0 Mt CuEq) at a 1.1% CuEq cut off, some 60% of which is in the Indicated category (by tonnage)
  • A further 100 Mt @ 1.0% CuEq (1.0 Mt CuEq) is added to the high grade core if a 0.9% CuEq cut off is used, some 50% of which is in the Indicated category (by tonnage).