Consolidating a 100% Interest in a Large-Scale Copper-Gold Porphyry Target with an Untested Core
Porphyry systems are the heavy hitters of copper supply, often hosting billions of tonnes of ore. Most explorers only hit the upper "cap," while the high-grade core typically sits hundreds of metres deeper. A project with proven surface minerals but an untested deep source is a high-conviction target. Today, one explorer in the Cangrejos-Zaruma belt secured 100% ownership to finally chase that hidden core.
Salazar Resources Ltd (TSX Venture: SRL)(OTCQB: SRLZF) announced it has consolidated 100% ownership of the Santiago Project in Loja Province, southern Ecuador. Santiago covers 2,350 hectares and hosts a significant copper-gold porphyry target positioned beneath a near-surface epithermal system. Critically, while the upper layers have been sampled, the projected porphyry core at depth has never been drill-tested.
Historical data from the project provides a compelling foundation. Three holes drilled by Newmont in 1998 tested the shallow lithocap and returned remarkably wide intervals: FUD-01 hit 323.09m at 0.23% Cu and 0.40 g/t Au, including 10.80m at 0.58% Cu and 0.40 g/t Au. FUD-02 returned 267.80m at 0.24% Cu and 0.43 g/t Au, including 170.95m at 0.33% Cu and 0.55 g/t Au. FUD-09 intersected 295.17m at 0.22% Cu and 0.20 g/t Au, including 67.86m at 0.79% Cu and 0.27 g/t Au.
Newmont’s exit from the project in the late 1990s was driven by a search for a different geological model, specifically a Yanacocha-style epithermal gold deposit. Consequently, the deeper porphyry engine driving the copper anomaly was never the primary objective and remains a wide-open target.
Subsequent exploration has reinforced the scale of the system. A MobileMT airborne geophysical survey defined a large, coherent conductivity anomaly beneath the lithocap. This was further validated by a 2021-2022 surface sampling program across 1,477 samples, which confirmed a coincident geochemical anomaly covering the full 3km by 2km footprint. Within this anomalous core, 47% of the representative samples returned greater than 250 ppm Cu and 34% returned greater than 0.11 g/t Au, with peak values reaching 21.1 g/t Au.
The project also features the Española vein system, which adds a high-grade epithermal dimension to the porphyry story. Historical rock chip samples from this zone returned 2.0m at 28.10 g/t Au and 231 g/t Ag, as well as 1.0m at 26.00 g/t Au and 242 g/t Ag. While surface samples carry inherent uncertainty, they confirm that the system possesses genuine high-grade character.
SRL is trading at C$0.24, up 14.29% on the day.
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