Chakana Copper

Chakana Copper is a Canadian-based minerals exploration company that is currently advancing the Soledad high-grade copper-gold-silver discovery located in the Ancash region of Peru. This mineralisation is hosted in Tourmaline breccia pipes. A breccia pipe is a mass of ‘breccia’ often found in irregular and cylindrical shapes. Broken fragments of minerals and rock cemented together make up a breccia. An initial inferred resource estimate for seven breccia pipes was announced in Q1 2022, with 6.73 million tonnes containing 191,000 ounces of gold, 11.7 million ounces of silver, and 130 million pounds of copper at an overall copper-equivalent grade of 1.81%. Only a small fraction of the property has been explored to date.

Chakana’s initial focus at Soledad is on the Tourmaline breccia pipes since they are numerous, crop out at surface, high-grade, vertically extensive, and closely spaced. While numerous breccia pipe targets remain to be tested, there are additional target types as well. A dacite porphyry crops out on the northwest part of the property with associated hydrothermal breccias, quartz-sericite alteration, and geochemical anomalies. On the south half of the project, an exceptionally large and strong gold-molybdenum soil anomaly overlies a weathered, poorly exposed intrusion. This target informally named the ‘mega-gold anomaly’ represents a large, intrusion-hosted porphyry-style target. In the southeast part of the property, strong silver mineralization associated with high sulfidation alteration crops out at surface. The initial inferred resource on a limited number of mineralized breccia pipes, all of which are open at depth, is the first step in what could become a Tier 1 mineral system with additional exploration. Chakana’s largest shareholder is Gold Fields, the seventh largest gold producer in the world, who clearly understands the upside potential of the Soledad project. The initial inferred resource is a great start, now it’s time to test the bigger exploration potential with bold exploration.

Understanding Ore Deposits

Tourmaline breccia systems form from unique magmatic-hydrothermal processes related to over-pressured zones at the top of crystallizing intrusions leading to explosive brecciation and the formation of breccia pipes extending upward from the intrusion. The breccia pipes then serve as conduits for the mineralizing fluids that carry the copper, gold, and silver. Such deposit types are typically zoned, from distal precious metal mineralisation, to deeper copper-rich mineralization closer to the intrusion. Tourmaline mineral systems can be related to porphyry copper, skarn, high-sulfidation, epithermal, and distal-disseminated gold deposits.

Focused Exploration

Chakana employs state-of-art multidisciplinary exploration to understand the overall mineral system and identify drill targets. This involves detailed geologic and wall-rock alteration mapping, geochemistry, geophysics, and spectral mineralogy. All data is modelled in 3D to understand the controls on mineralization. To date, Chakana has drilled over 60,000 meters of diamond core to define resources, test targets, and understand the geology.

Exploration potential

A thorough review of all geologic information in a workshop with Gold Fields led to the identification of 154 discreet targets at Soledad. Chakana has an aggressive exploration plan to test a variety of different targets, starting on the north half of the project where initial drill permits allowed drilling starting in 2017. In June of 2023, the company received a drill permit to test most of the southern half of the project, where the mega-gold anomaly, high-sulfidation zone, and additional high-grade breccia pipe targets are located.