Cordoba Minerals Provides an Update on Pre-Feasibility Study Fieldwork at the 100%-Owned Alacran Copper-Gold- Silver Project in Colombia Metallurgical, Geotechnical and Hydrological Drilling is Well-Advanced Exploration Planned at Alacran and Montiel West to Locate
March 31, 2021
Cordoba Minerals Provides an Update on Pre-Feasibility Study Fieldwork at the 100%-Owned Alacran Copper-Gold- Silver Project in Colombia
Metallurgical, Geotechnical and Hydrological Drilling is Well-Advanced
Exploration Planned at Alacran and Montiel West to Locate Porphyry Copper Mineralization
VANCOUVER, CANADA – Eric Finlayson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cordoba Minerals Corp. (TSXV:CDB; OTCQB:CDBMF; otherwise “Cordoba” or “the Company”) is pleased to provide an update on the ongoing Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”) at its 100%-owned Alacran Copper-Gold-Silver Project. The Alacran project is located in the Department of Córdoba of northern Colombia in a newly-recognized Laramide-age porphyry copper-gold district.
“We are making excellent progress on our PFS fieldwork and we remain on track for finalizing the study before the end of 2021. We are pleased to see a good correlation between the resource block model and the metallurgical holes we have drilled. This confirms that we have a robust mineral resource at Alacran. We are also about to reactivate our search for the hidden porphyry sources of mineralization at Alacran and Montiel West. A porphyry copper discovery would be the platform for the next stage of growth for the Company,” commented Mr. Finlayson (see Figure 1 below).
Highlights:
- The Mining Technical Work Plan (PTO) and Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA), required for a Colombian mining licence application, remain on schedule. The PTO is expected to be submitted in Q4 2021 and the EIA in Q1 2022.
- 52 of 94 planned drill holes have been completed (see Table 1 below). These
holes are being drilled for geotechnical, hydrological and metallurgical testing, with some resource in-fill holes planned to convert Inferred Resources to the Measured & Indicated categories. Assay results from the in-fill drilling will be announced when available.
- All 63 excavator pits required for geotechnical investigations have been
completed.
- Drill core from four of the seven planned metallurgical holes is now at Blue
Coast Research on Vancouver Island undergoing metallurgical test work. Each hole sampled a different part of the orebody.
- Assay data have been received for six of the metallurgical drill holes.
- Holes ACD085 and ACD086 were drilled immediately south and north
of the Alacran village (see Figure 2 below), and both showed an excellent correlation with the anticipated higher grade zones in the resource block model, shown in Figures 3 and 4.
- Holes ACD088 and ACD092 both returned good correlations with
predicted high grade structures, shown in Figures 5 and 8.
- Hole ACD090 did not intersect the higher-grade interval anticipated at
the bottom of the hole, which tested the low-grade eastern edge of the deposit (see Figure 5). The block model will be re-cast to reflect this new information but will have no significant impact on the Alacran resource estimate.
- Hole ACD091 tested the sparsely drilled southern part of the deposit,
encountering magnetite-rich intervals with modest mineralization towards the bottom of the hole (see Figure 7).
- Cordoba’s exploration team is currently designing a geophysical and drilling
program to search for the porphyry sources of the Alacran and Montiel West deposits.
| Hole objective | Number of holes completed | Meterage (m) | Further planned holes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geotechnical | 23 | 1,909 | 12 |
| Hydrological | 15 | 759 | 3 |
| Metallurgical | 6 | 820 | 4 |
| Condemnation | 8 | 397 | 1 |
| Resource In-fill | 0 | 0 | 22 |
| Total | 52 | 3,885 | 42 |
Table 1: Drill holes completed to date as part of the Alacran PFS work program.
The metallurgical holes were originally designed to intersect shallow material to be mined in the first five years of production. However, with drill casing still in the holes, the decision has been taken to deepen the holes towards the bottom of the planned pit where the current drill spacing and grade estimate is lower. This should help push higher-grade areas lower within the pit and hopefully extend the pit to greater depth.
| Hole ID | From | To | Interval (m) | CuEq (%) | Cu (%) | Au (g/t) | Ag (g/t) | Cut-off (%CuEq) | True Thickness (approx % of intercept width) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACD085 | 16.4 | 51.7 | 35.3 | 1.04 | 0.78 | 0.37 | 2.05 | 0.3 | 90-100% |
| 80.4 | 88.0 | 7.6 | 0.48 | 0.21 | 0.4 | 0.67 | 0.3 | ||
| ACD086 | 0 | 63.4 | 63.4 | 0.62 | 0.37 | 0.33 | 3.94 | 0.3 | 90-100% |
| 71.3 | 75.43 | 4.13 | 0.68 | 0.61 | 0.02 | 6.24 | 0.3 | ||
| 81.83 | 92.36 | 10.53 | 0.82 | 0.34 | 0.03 | 55.59 | 0.3 | ||
| ACD088 | 0.0 | 16.0 | 16 | 0.51 | 0.44 | 0.09 | 1.68 | 0.3 | 90-100% |
| 49.8 | 73.1 | 23.3 | 0.7 | 0.58 | 0.12 | 4.26 | 0.3 | ||
| 90.0 | 94.0 | 4 | 0.76 | 0.65 | 0.14 | 2.33 | 0.3 | ||
| 103.7 | 114.4 | 10.7 | 1.14 | 0.8 | 0.46 | 4.71 | 0.3 | ||
| 119.6 | 126 | 6.4 | 0.69 | 0.5 | 0.25 | 3.18 | 0.3 | ||
| 176.0 | 180.4 | 4.4 | 0.36 | 0.29 | 0.05 | 3.65 | 0.3 | ||
| ACD090 | 16.0 | 18.0 | 2 | 0.49 | 0.27 | 0.33 | 0.75 | 0.3 | 90-100% |
| 22.0 | 26.0 | 4 | 0.62 | 0.46 | 0.23 | 1.24 | 0.3 | ||
| 48.0 | 50.0 | 2 | 0.3 | 0.28 | 0.02 | 0.78 | 0.3 | ||
| 68.0 | 70.0 | 2 | 0.36 | 0.003 | 0.54 | 0.08 | 0.3 | ||
| ACD091 | 55.5 | 65 | 9.5 | 0.45 | 0.37 | 0.1 | 1.53 | 0.3 | 90-100% |
| 93 | 97.1 | 4.1 | 0.77 | 0.09 | 1.03 | 0.56 | 0.3 | ||
| ACD092 | 47.0 | 55.0 | 8 | 0.69 | 0.50 | 0.26 | 1.37 | 0.3 | 90-100% |
| 61.0 | 69.0 | 8 | 0.77 | 0.54 | 0.33 | 1.5 | 0.3 | ||
| 75.0 | 106.0 | 31 | 2.1 | 0.49 | 2.42 | 1.6 | 0.3 |
Table 2: Significant intercepts from recent Alacran metallurgical drilling.
- Copper-equivalent values have been calculated using a US$1,400 per ounce gold price and US$3.10 per
pound copper price and US$17.75 per ounce silver price.
Ongoing PFS engineering design work includes: mining throughput studies; investigating pit design options; evaluating infrastructure alternatives; assessing plant options and examining the use of thickened tailings. A comparison between mining throughput of 16,000 tonnes per day as envisaged in the 2019 Preliminary Economic Assessment and a higher throughput of 20,000 tonnes per day has indicated that the 20,000 tonne per day case is likely value-accretive through pulling metal production forward.
Environmental baseline studies continue including air, water, vibration, noise, fauna and flora surveys (see Figures 9 and 10 below). Cordoba continues working with the local communities within the area of impact, and is currently focused on developing a social program with short-, medium- and long-term benefits to all members of the communities, as part of fostering the Company’s social licence to operate.
Figure 1: Location of the Alacran and Montiel West deposits.
Figure 2: Location of the metallurgical holes.
ACD085
ACD063 ACA 005 SJ07 ACA 003
N 50m
Figure 3: Cross section through ACD085 showing excellent correlation with predicted near surface high grade material.
ACD051 ACD010 ACD086
ACD071 ACD077 ACD060
N 50m
Figure 4: Cross section through ACD086, which gave a good correlation with predicted high grades in the north of the pit.
ACD005 ACD088
50m
Figure 5: Cross section through ACD088 showing good correlations with predicted high grades at 50m and 100m depth.
ACD018
ACD019 ACD090
N 50m
Figure 6: Cross section through ACD090 which confirmed the mostly low grades predicted in the Eastern part of the ore body. The high grade chute was not confirmed, and will be re-modelled.
ACD091
ASA027
ASA049
N 50m
Figure 7: Cross section through ACD091.
ACD092 ACD047
ACD036
ACD038
50m
Figure 8: Cross section through ACD092, which confirmed the predicted near surface high grades.
Figure 9: Preparing an air quality monitoring station in the village of San Juan Nuevo.
Figure 10: Collecting hydrobiological samples from the Valdes stream.