(Global Geoscience 100%)
Global has identified and acquired tenure over a possible extension to the mineralised system that hosts the giant Morenci copper mine in Arizona. Global believes the New Morenci project has the potential to host a large tonnage of porphyry-related leachable copper mineralisation.
The New Morenci project is located 250km east of Phoenix in south-east Arizona, USA and five kilometres north of the Morenci copper mine. Global holds granted tenements over an area of 7.6 sq km.
The Morenci mine owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc/Sumitomo Corp. is one of the world’s largest copper producers with planned production of over 800 million pounds per annum. The mine exploits a porphyry-related deposit, ranked as the third largest of this style in the world for contained copper, with total recorded past production and current reserves of 6 billion tonnes at 0.42% copper.
Global identified the New Morenci area as being highly prospective through a regional targeting study conducted over the Arizona-Mexico porphyry province. A program of reconnaissance surface exploration followed. The New Morenci area has been found to be characterised by strongly anomalous copper in stream and soil samples, dense fracturing of the bedrock and quartz/iron oxide veining – all positive indicators for porphyry-style mineralisation.
Global has identified a copper-molybdenum soil anomaly over an area of approximately 1000m by 500m. Within this zone, copper values in the soil are mostly greater than 200ppm Cu (and up to 584ppm) and molybdenum values are greater than 5ppm Mo (and up to 8ppm).
A zone of significant lead-zinc and silver soil anomalism has also been identified. These anomalies, together with a number of old mine workings, indicate the area also has potential for lead-zinc-silver mineralisation. The Lime Cap lead-zinc mine extracted minor production of ore in the 1940’s from a concordant 2 to 6m thick horizon containing 3 to10% lead, 7 to 25% zinc and about 120g/t silver.
The zones of copper, lead-zinc and silver soil anomalies are currently being followed up by infill soil sampling, rock chip sampling and detailed geological mapping. Work has begun to obtain the necessary environmental and regulatory approvals for drill testing of the copper soil anomaly. Whilst it is expected to take up to 12 months to obtain the necessary permits to allow drilling over the whole target area, the Company is investigating the possibility of drilling sooner by positioning some holes close to existing roads thereby minimizing any surface disturbance.
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