Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) relaunches Santa Inés Copper Gold Project after strategic review

Power Minerals has moved to restart exploration at its 100% owned Santa Inés Copper Gold Project in Argentina’s Salta Province, following a strategic review and the termination of a previous agreement, positioning the company to reassess a high grade but shallowly tested system within a major Andean structural corridor during a period of strength in copper and gold markets.

Highlights

• Rock chip sampling has returned copper grades exceeding 1.0% Cu and gold values up to 0.8 g/t Au
• A 2022 diamond drilling program of 651.4 m intersected mineralisation in all holes, confirming continuity of structures
• Weighted intercepts included 26 m at 0.60% Cu from 62 m and 9 m at 0.39% Cu from 84 m
• Existing drilling only tested to a maximum depth of 130 m, with geophysical anomalies identified from approximately 600 m
• A data integration and reinterpretation program is underway to define deep targets within a large scale mineralised system

The Santa Inés Project is located in the Puna region of northwest Argentina within a northeast trending crustal scale lineament that is recognised in Andean geology as a long lived structural corridor controlling the distribution of porphyry and epithermal deposits.

The Archibarca lineament extends from the Cerro Galán caldera complex through to the Pacific coast of Chile and hosts operating and advanced copper gold systems.

Along this same structural trend are Fortuna Mining’s Lindero Gold Mine and a number of advanced Cu Au projects to the southeast, while BHP’s Escondida porphyry system lies approximately 80 km to the northwest, all deposited during the Late Eocene Oligocene.

At Santa Inés, mineralisation is associated with Permo Triassic granodioritic basement intruded by northeast trending mafic dikes and felsic bodies.

Field mapping and rock chip sampling have identified copper oxides including malachite, azurite and chrysocolla, together with iron oxides such as hematite and magnetite, pointing to a robust hydrothermal system.

Surface sampling returned copper values above 1.0% Cu and gold values up to 0.8 g/t Au, with individual samples reporting grades as high as 8.61% Cu and 0.795 g/t Au in brecciated granodiorite and mafic dike settings, noting that spot samples are selective and not necessarily representative.

Drilling completed in 2022 comprised 5 diamond holes for a total of 651.4 m, with an average depth of 112.8 m and a maximum depth of 130 m below surface.

All holes intersected copper, silver and gold mineralisation, providing a high hit rate and confirming that the surface structures extend into the subsurface.

Significant weighted intercepts included 26 m at 0.60% Cu from 62 m in drillhole PNSI22-005, 9 m at 0.34% Cu from 71 m in PNSI22-002, 9 m at 0.39% Cu from 84 m in PNSI22-001 and 10 m at 0.25% Cu from 84 m in PNSI22-004, with associated silver and gold values reported in individual sample intervals.

The strategic reassessment is driven by the recognition that all drilling to date has been extremely shallow relative to the scale of the geophysical response.

Existing magnetic and IP datasets define high priority anomalies commencing at approximately 600 m depth, more than 450 m below the deepest drill intersection, suggesting that previous programs may only have tested the upper portions of a much larger mineralised system.

Managing Director Mena Habib said that

“with copper and gold prices reaching new heights, Santa Inés represents a compelling opportunity for Power. We have confirmed the system at the surface and in the first 100 metres. The real prize, however, may lie deeper. The fact that geophysics points to a possible major target at 600 metres, untested by our shallow scout drilling, gives Power a clear and exciting path forward to add significant value for our shareholders.”

The next phase of work will focus on integrating geochemistry, surface mapping, drilling and reprocessed geophysical data to refine the geometry of the mineralised dikes and project them toward the deeper anomalies.

This will include structural modelling using existing drill core, reinterpretation of historical magnetic and IP surveys with modern processing techniques, and the generation of high impact diamond drilling targets to test for a large scale porphyry or high grade feeder system at depth.

From an operational perspective, Santa Inés benefits from proximity to the Salta Antofagasta railway, located approximately 5 km from the project and providing access to the Pacific coast, and from its location within Salta Province, which is described as mining friendly.

The relaunch of Santa Inés marks a shift from shallow validation drilling to a strategy centred on deeper, geophysics led targeting within a major Andean structural corridor.

With surface mineralisation confirmed, continuity demonstrated by early drilling and a large untested geophysical footprint at depth, the project is now positioned for a technically focused phase aimed at defining and prioritising deep drill targets within a system that remains largely untested below the upper 130 m.

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