Max finds 2nd high-grade copper-silver zone at Cesar

2020.02.15

The discoveries keep on coming from Max Resource Corp. (TSX-V:MXR, OTC:MXROF, FSE:M1D2), the copper/ silver junior focused on the Andean Copper Belt of northeastern Colombia.

The Vancouver-based company is exploring highly prospective ground at its Cesar sediment-hosted copper-silver project, located 420 km north of Bogota. 

Max also holds gold/ PGE exploration applications in the Choco PGE Project (Max reported concentrates from sample 001 grading 341 g/t gold and 111 g/t platinum and sample 002 grading 222 g/t gold and 114 g/t platinum. Max’s North Choco Gold-Copper Project consists of wholly owned mineral applications (150 sq. km), located approximately 80 km SW of Medellin, Colombia and cover, or are nearby, to historic production of 1.5 million ounces of gold and one million ounces of platinum by Choco Pacific Mining (1906 to 1990).

It was only last month that Max discovered a stratabound copper-silver horizon (the AM Horizon) that trends northeast-southwest over 1.4 kilometers. AM Horizon is open in all directions and dips at about 40 degrees to the northwest. 

Grades of the main mineralized zone at the AM Horizon range from 0.05% to 2.69% copper, 3 g/t to 39.5 g/t silver, and mineralized rock chip or panel samples with widths varying from 0.5m to 3m.

This week, Max followed up with a second high-grade discovery, just south of AM Horizon. The aptly named Outcrop Zone is defined by 13 outcrops, from which rock chip and panel samples have been taken. 

Chip and panel rock sample highlights include (*):

• 4.4% copper and 33 g/t over 0.6m
• 2.4% copper and 11 g/t silver over a 3m x 3m panel
• 1.8% copper and 5 g/t silver over a 3m x 2m panel
• 1.4% copper and 4 g/t silver over a 3m x 2m panel
• 4.3% copper and 26 g/t silver over a 3m x 3m panel
• 2.1% copper and 9 g/t silver over 6m
• 1.8% copper and 12 g/t silver over a 3m x 3m panel
• 1.8% copper and 12 g/t silver over a 3m by 3m panel

 (*) Feb 11, 2020, news release

Two days later, even before AOTH could publish Tuesdays news about the Outcrop Zone, Max announced the zone had been extended by 1.5 km, from 2 km to 3.5 km.

Chip and panel rock sample highlights include (*):

• 2.0% copper and 49 g/t silver over a 3m x 2m panel
• 2.4% copper and 11 g/t silver over a 3m x 3m panel
• 1.9% copper and 20 g/t silver over a 3m x 3m panel
• 1.8% copper and 5 g/t silver over a 3m x 2m panel
• 4.3% copper and 26 g/t silver over a 3m x 3m panel
• 1.7% copper and 20 g/t silver over a 3m x 2m panel
• 1.8% copper and 12 g/t silver over a 3m x 3m pane
• 1.5% copper and 9 g/t silver over a 3m x 2m panel

(*) Feb 13, 2020, news release

Composite grab sampling returned a preliminary 25-meter-thick interval grading 0.7% copper and 4 g/t silver, and a 25m-thick interval grading 0.6% copper and 7 g/t silver. These thicker intersections include a significant portion of the hanging wall and footwall of the copper-silver horizon, according to the news release, which adds that continuous rock chip sampling from the horizon is expected soon.

“We were very excited to see such thick intervals of copper-silver values,” said Max’s CEO, Brett Matich.

Note these are very high copper and silver grades – up to 4.4% copper and 49 grams per tonne silver. Note also – these grades are averages from panels, not pieces of high-grade ore chipped from the outcrop to fool investors into thinking the whole outcrop is high-grade when only a small chunk of it is. It’s important for investors to differentiate between a select rock chip sample, and average grade across a 3m x 3m = 9 square meter panel. 

This is an important distinction. 

Max’s discoveries at Cesar couldn’t come at a better time for silver and copper. Silver prices are expected to do well this year and the current copper pipeline is the lowest it’s been in a century. Existing mines are running out of reserves. The mining downturn of 2012-16 meant little capital was dedicated to exploring for new copper deposits, forcing companies to look farther afield for the red metal. 

In northeastern Colombia, crews at the Cesar project have been searching for, and discovering copper-silver mineralization, that Max thinks could be the tip of the iceberg of a giant sediment-hosted copper-silver mineralized system. The company has identified a 120 km x 20 km copper-silver target area where combined copper and silver grades of collected samples are up to or above 2% CuEq (copper-equivalent); often the identified mineralization is open in all directions. 

An initial rock sampling program at Cesar reported grab sample assays ranging from 0.3% copper to 4.2% copper, and 1 to 116 grams per tonne silver. Recent photos from the site show visible copper oxide mineralization in samples. 

Over the past few months Max’s geological teams and prospectors have been identifying copper-silver targets in the 120 km x 20 km target area, collecting rock and soil samples, and doing structural mapping.

The 3.5-kilometer-long Outcrop Zone, coupled with the AM Horizon, comprise a 4.9-km strike that is open in all directions – indicating further size potential. Outcrops 2 to 8 and 12, the green circles on the map below, are thought to be lateral extensions of the strike, the dotted red line, totaling 15 km. 

“The Cesar style of mineralization appears to be similar to a large sub-horizontal sheet, with the edges partly exposed at surface,” Max CEO Brett Matich explained in the Feb. 11 news release. 

The market responded well to the news, with MXR up 5% at the close of trading Tuesday on the Toronto Venture Exchange.

In an earlier interview, Max’s head geologist, Piotr Lutynski, told AOTH that Colombia’s stratigraphy is similar to his homeland, Poland, and its Kupferschiefer sediment hosted copper-silver deposit. KGHM Polska Miedź (KGHM), the only copper producer in Poland, mined 30.252Mt of ore at 1.49% Cu and 48.6 g/t Ag, comprising 452,000t of Cu and 1,471t of Ag in 2018.

“It’s similar general stratigraphy with the sandstone below the limestone on top and the Kupferschiefer equivalent in the middle,” said Lutynski.

In the schematic below, of KGHM’s Kupferschiefer in Poland, notice the 2m average thickness of the “Kupferschiefer” (German for copper shale) that hosts the copper-silver mineralization. That is a very wide horizon available for mining, should the stratigraphy at Cesar resemble anything close to KGHM’s Kupferschiefer. Also note that KGHM is one of the largest silver producers in the world and the eighth biggest copper producer.

According to the US Geological Survey, the massive volume of metal in the Kupferschiefer is due to continuous mineralization that extends down dip and laterally for kilometers.

We already know that high-grade chip sampling over 3m by 3m panels at Outcrop Zone and AM Horizon are at mineable widths and grades.

In a recent interview with AOTH, CEO Brett Matich said the business plan has been, and going forward, is to identify enough mineralized areas in different locations to demonstrate to a deep-pocketed partner how extensive the system is.

With discovery of the AM Horizon, the Outcrop Zone and a potential new zone (chip samples have been taken with assay results pending) 35 km north of the Outcrop and AM Horizon zones, I’d have to say the business plan has, so far, been a raging success. 

Two discoveries have been made in a matter of months, possibility a third. This is a very short discovery time frame for a junior resource company. Of course drilling will be needed to determine what lies below in terms of structures, and how far the mineralization extends, in terms of a system, but we love what we’re seeing so far. Figure one is striking, it’s just amazing to me to see such a concentration of outcrops, and what they might represent, on Max’s exploration licenses. 

It all makes me believe that Max might really be onto something here.

Max Resource Corp.
TSX-V:MXR
Cdn$0.105, 2020.02.13
Shares Outstanding 27,906,155m
Market cap Cdn$2,930,146m
MXR website

Richard (Rick) Mills
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