Fitzroy Minerals Inc. (TSXV: FTZ, OTCQX: FTZFF, FSE: C3Y) has released an exploration update on its Buen Retiro and Caballos copper projects in northern Chile, reporting encouraging drill results and progress toward a preliminary feasibility study. The company intersected 384 meters grading 0.22% copper from 4 meters in drill hole BRT-DDH045, including a higher-grade interval of 94 meters at 0.33% copper from 30 meters, at the Buen Retiro project near Copiapo.
The results are part of an ongoing infill drilling program designed to support a maiden mineral resource estimate and subsequent pre-feasibility study. The company has completed drill holes 46 through 60 and is logging and sampling core. Approximately 6,000 meters of infill drilling is expected to be completed by April, after which one rig will continue with exploration drilling for a minimum of 8,000 meters, with flexibility to extend to 15,000 meters.
Fitzroy has also prepared a 2,800-kilogram bulk sample for heap leach metallurgical testing at SGS Laboratories, scheduled to begin in late March. The test work will evaluate the potential for a low-cost heap leach operation, which the company sees as a pathway to generate cash flow while exploring for larger deposits. The Buen Retiro project is located on a brownfields site four kilometers from the Pan-American Highway and high-voltage transmission lines, near the coast where a proposed desalination plant has a seawater extraction license, and close to the mining center of Copiapo.
In addition to drilling, Fitzroy has contracted Fleet Space Technologies to conduct an Exosphere Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) geophysical survey. The initial regional survey aims to image subsurface architecture, including basement geometry and structural corridors that may host IOCG mineralization. A phase 2 infill survey may follow to refine targets.
At the Caballos copper-molybdenum-gold project, an airborne MobileMT geophysical survey has been completed, and data interpretation is ongoing. Phase 2 drilling is planned for later this year once the geophysical data are integrated into the geological model.
Dr. Scott Jobin-Bevans, P.Geo., the qualified person under NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release. The company notes that drill hole BRT-DDH045 intersected two mineralizing styles: stockwork and breccia in the upper 100 meters, transitioning into a stratiform system similar to the Candelaria deposit for the remaining 284 meters. Copper mineralization consists of chalcopyrite and is consistent throughout the hole.
Fitzroy Minerals is focused on copper assets in the Americas, with properties including the Buen Retiro and Caballos projects in Chile, the Taquetren gold project in Argentina, and the Caribou project in Canada. The company’s shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol FTZ and on the OTCQX under FTZFF.
