Loa Copper Project - Chile
- Calama Region Northern Chile, Copper Porphyry Target - 40km E of Chuquicamata Mine, 40km N of Spence Mine,
- Surrounded by Majors (BHPB, Vale, Codelco) –
- Geophysics Planned 2H11
Figure 1: Location of Loa tenements, within the Atacama Desert porphyry belt
INTRODUCTION
The Loa Project was acquired as a greenfield application in 3Q10 as part of Helix’s Chile exploration targeting strategy. The Project lies in an area surrounded by world class copper porphyry systems including Chuquicamata, Radomiro Tomic & Mansa Mina (40km east) and Spence, Santa Catalina (mined out) & Sierra Gorda (40-60km south). The area is well serviced with the mining town of Calama 30km east of the project with main roads passing the project to the north, west and south (Figure 1). Some axis tracks already exist on the Project area and new tracks are not difficult to establish given the absence of vegetation and lack of rainfall in this part of Chile
| Deposit Name | Reserves and Resources | Owner | Status |
| Chuquicamata | 10.5Bt @ 0.54% Cu (R&R) | Codelco | Operation |
| Spence | 313Mt @ 1.08% Cu (Res only) | BHP Billiton | Operation |
| Radomiro Tomic | 7.2Bt @ 0.37% Cu (R&R) | Codelco | Operation |
| Mansa Mina (Ministro Hale) | 1.3Bt @ 0.94% Cu (R&R) | Codelco | Operation |
| Sierra Gorda | 1.95Bt @ 0.5% Cu (R&R) | Quadra | BFS |
| Mani | Unknown | Anglo American | Prospect |
| Santa Catalina | 700Mt @ 0.7% Cu (prod) | Outokump | Exploited |
A 25km wide north-south trending structural corridor which trends through the Loa Project is one of the controls to the Spence Mine and surrounding porphyries. The Mani Project, an un-developed porphyry is located just 10km south of the Loa tenements, also controlled by this corridor, and a small vein copper prospect (Tres Compardres Condor) is mapped on the SE boundary of the Loa tenement in some of the only exposed basement rocks in the area.
Known broad spaced drilling in the vicinity of the Project suggests basement at 30-50m on the eastern side of the project and 150m on the western edges of the project. Depth of cover is expected to vary with the palaeo topography (buried hills and valleys).
The proposed program for the project includes appropriate geophysical techniques to identify and define targets undercover for drilling.
REGIONAL GEOLOGY
Preliminary Observations
The Loa Project is dominated by Miocene – Holocene gravels with a small area of sub-cropping Jurassic-Cretaceous sediments in the SE corner of the tenements. Basement is thought to consist of a continuation of Jurassic – Cretaceous mixed volcanoclastic, lavas and intrusives in the south and Cretaceous to Tertiary diorite intrusives, prophyries inter mixed with volcanic breccias in the North. These lithologies tend to host porphyries and porphyry mineralisation south and east of the tenement (Figure 2).Structure
Mapped structures are dominated by NW and NE faults through the tenement area. However it appears the N-S lineaments continue undercover through this zone, based on regional magnetic and gravity interpretations..jpg)