Max identifies new copper-silver zone at CESAR

2020.07.05

Max Resource Corp. (TSX-V:MXR) continues to make good headway at its CESAR copper-silver project in Colombia, having just discovered a new zone at AM North – one of two targets being worked at CESAR, the other being AM South. 

For the past eight months, Max’s geological teams have been identifying copper and silver targets in a 100 km x 20 km target area at the project, located in the La Guajira department of northeastern Colombia. In-country field teams are conducting mapping and rock chip sampling. Identified mineralized structures are followed along their strike length to determine the continuity, thickness, and  potential target size prior to drilling.

The company is following Kupferschiefer style stratabound copper-silver model based on the geological similarities with Kupferschiefer deposit in Poland.

The stratabound copper-silver mineralization found at CESAR is similar to the mineralization found in Ecuador and Peru and it is hosted in the Jurassic-age rocks. The project lies along a historic 100-km copper-silver belt within a major oil and gas and coal-mining sedimentary basin.  

Fig 1. CESAR target zone location

Tuesday’s news release concerns its AM North discovery – which features a stratabound copper-silver horizon, with mineralized structures now totaling over 11 km. Composite grab samples taken from three outcrops, found along an open-ended 300m horizon, returned 2.7% copper and 4 grams per tonne silver over 2 meters. 

This new Ventana Zone more than quadruples the strike length at AM North from 2.5 km to 11 km, as shown on the map below. The Ventana Zone trends north 11 km to the Herradura Zone, where two previously reported bulk samples 1.8-km apart, returned 10.4% copper + 88g/t silver and 3.5% copper + 29 g/t silver.

Fig 2. AM NORTH, Ventana & Herradura Zones, assays pending locations

AM South, which also features a stratabound copper-silver horizon, has mineralized structures totaling over 5 km of strike length. Earlier this year, sampling from 0.1 to 25-meter intervals returned highlight values of 5.4% copper and 63 g/t silver. 

“Extending the AM North stratabound copper-silver zone to over 11-kilometres is a major step towards demonstrating the potential of the CESAR district as a significant copper and silver regional target,” said Max’s CEO, Brett Matich, in the June 23 news.

“Our field teams continue to make new discoveries, building on and confirming the Kupferschiefer-style geological model for CESAR. We look forward to releasing further exploration results as ALS Mineral Assay Labs clears the backlog resulting from COVID-19.” 

The company says the style of mineralization and copper minerals at Ventana – chalcocite, malachite, azurite, cuprite, and native copper – are similar to the copper-silver mineralization at Herradura and also to mineralization observed at the AM South zone. 

Structural analysis conducted by the geological engineering department at the Colombia National University in Medellín, concluded that the Kupferschiefer-type stratabound copper-silver mineralization at the Herradura Zone forms a continuous mineralized zone, striking at approximately 265 degrees. 

The study was conducted with assistance from Max’s field team, as part of a Masters-level thesis, on stratabound copper-silver mineralization within the Cesar-Ranchería Basin of northeastern Colombia.

According to the June 9 news release, 

The copper-silver mineralization dips gently to the NNW at 15 to 21 degrees, crops out up dip and is exposed down dip in erosional “windows” along several creeks.

Fig 3. AM NORTH, Creek cutting through the gently dipping Herradura Zone

Assays are pending from February/March and April/May field programs at AM North and AM South, located 40 km south-southwest along the same mineralized trend. The next field program begins at the end of June.

Fig 4. AM SOUTH, sub-horizontal mineralization exposed on hillsides.

The geological theory Max is operating under, gleaned from a combination of field work, seismic studies and knowledge of Kupferschiefer-type deposits, is that mineralization of AM North and AM South are both hosted in well-bedded sandstone-siltstone forming sub-horizontal sheets, that partly outcrop at surface. 

As well as further defining the mineralization at AM North and AM South, Max is also looking at the project from the big picture, with assistance from the Colombia National University, Poland’s University of Science and Technology, and a major copper company, which is working with Fathom Geophysics in completing a geophysical study. 

The aim of Fathom’s study is to map stratigraphic (rock layers) features and alteration signatures that can help to pinpoint stratabound copper-silver mineral horizons at CESAR. 

The collaboration with the major and the study being carried out by Fathom complements a research program initiated with the University of Science and Technology (“AGH”) of Krakow, Poland.

The CESAR project and its potential for hosting a Kupfershiefer-type of deposit, analogous to a large group of copper-silver deposits in Poland/ Germany of the same name, has grabbed the attention of one of the most important research centers in the world for the study of these sedimentary-hosted stratiform copper deposits which are also large repositories of silver. 

In an April 21, 2020 press release, Max said it sent surface rock samples extracted from CESAR’s stratabound copper+silver mineralization horizons to AGH. Researchers at the university, which has worked extensively with Polish state miner KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., have been conducting mineralogical and geochemical studies on the samples; also, a Masters-level student is planning on writing a thesis paper on the results.  

Mineralogy results are pending, but initial results from petrographic analysis of two samples from AM South were released by Max in May. 

They confirm the presence of native copper, chalcolite, and malachite hosted in siltstone and sandstone. Covellite was also detected, having not been found previously. That could be significant, because copper sulfides are more profitable to mine as a result of their higher copper content. The copper is also more easily separated from other minerals, compared to copper oxides. 

Conclusion

Fig 5. AM NORTH, “Herradura Zone” high-grade component.

Max’s CESAR project appears to offer good value for investors looking to take a position in an early-stage copper-silver play. Rock chip channel samples taken thus far have shown very large zones, a high-grade component, copper of up to 24.8% and silver up to 230 g/t, remembering the target is Kupferschiefer style tonnage and grades. KGHM’s Kupferschiefer is Europe’s largest copper mine, in 2018 producing 30.3Mt of ore grading 1.49% copper and 48.6 g/t silver from a mineralized zone that averages 0.4 to 5.5-metre thickness. In addition, it is the world’s leading silver producer, providing 40.2Mozs in 2019, almost twice the production of the world’s second largest silver mine, according to the World Silver Survey 2020.

The fact that copper-silver mineralization the AM North and AM South targets forms sub-horizontal mineralized horizons hosted in sandstone adds credibility to the Kupferschiefer analogy. In Poland’s Kupferschiefer deposits, continuous mineralization extends down dip and laterally for kilometers. Could the mineralization at CESAR do the same? If so Max could be looking at a district-scale, even a regionally extensive copper-silver mineralized system. 

Of course, it’s early stage. The targets will have to be drilled, although not as extensively as a copper porphyry.  

The next moves are to significantly expand the footprint of the deposit, determine the continuity of the copper-silver mineralization, finance a drill program and to reveal the true potential of CESAR as the next Kuperschiefer-style mining district.

Max Resource Corp.
TSX-V:MXR
Cdn$0.11, 2020.07.05
Shares Outstanding 27,906,155m
Market cap Cdn$3.06m
MXR website

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

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