La Plata - Colorado, USA
Metallic Minerals announced an updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the La Plata project in a May 2023, representing a 25% increase in tonnage based on an additional 1,730 meters of diamond drilling completed in 2022. Inferred mineral resources at the Allard deposit now total 1,211 million pounds of copper (“Mlbs”) and 17.6 million ounces (“Moz”) of silver in a constrained model with 147.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.41% Copper Equivalent (“CuEq") (0.37% Cu and 3.72 g/t Ag) using a 0.25% CuEq cut-off grade.
The expansion from the inaugural resource to the current 1,317 Mlbs CuEq is largely driven by the major discovery in drill hole LAP22-04 (drilled in 2022), which intersected 816 meters of 0.41% CuEq recovered (0.30% Cu, 2.47 g/t Ag, 0.038 g/t Au, 0.055 g/t Pd and 0.093 g/t Pd) bottoming in 5.39% CuEq recovered over 5.2 m (2.44% Cu, 18.7 g/t Ag, 5.0 g/t Au+PGE).
The greater La Plata silver-gold-copper project remains underexplored and open to new discoveries of both additional copper porphyry centers as well as high-grade epithermal silver and gold systems.
La Plata Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate at a Base Case Cut-off Grade of 0.25% CuEq with Grade and Contained Metal Sensitivity Analysis at Various CuEq Cut-off Grades
Class | CuEq (%) | Tonnes | Cu | Ag | CuEq (%) | |||
Cut-off | Grade (%) | Mlbs | Grade (g/t) | Ounces | Grade (%) | Mlbs | ||
Inferred | 0.15 | 212,243,000 | 0.32 | 1,480 | 3.24 | 22,131,000 | 0.34 | 1,613 |
Inferred | 0.20 | 187,173,000 | 0.34 | 1,391 | 3.42 | 20,597,000 | 0.37 | 1,515 |
Inferred | 0.25 | 147,344,000 | 0.37 | 1,211 | 3.72 | 17,604,000 | 0.41 | 1,317 |
Inferred | 0.30 | 116,438,000 | 0.41 | 1,041 | 3.95 | 14,783,000 | 0.44 | 1,130 |
Inferred | 0.35 | 87,871,000 | 0.44 | 854 | 4.20 | 11,861,000 | 0.48 | 925 |
The 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate has been estimated in conformity with CIM Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practices Guidelines (2019) and current CIM Definition Standards - For Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (2014). The constrained Mineral Resources are reported at a base case cut-off grade of 0.25% CuEq, based on metal prices of $3.60/lb Cu and $22.50/oz Ag, assumed metal recoveries of 90% for Cu and 65% for Ag, a mining cost of US$5.30/t rock and processing and G&A cost of US$11.50/t mineralized material. Cu Eq calculations are based on 100% recovery of all metals using the same metal prices used for the resource calculation. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate.
The current Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Resources in this Mineral Resource Estimate are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Resources as Indicated or Measured. However, based on the current knowledge of the deposits, it is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration.
