Projects
Chile
Chile forms an important part of Mariana's strategic plan. The country is the World’s largest copper producer from a number of giant porphyry coppers such as Escondida and two world class iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits. It consistently ranks as a top global exploration/mining destination.
Mariana’s focus is on IOCG exploration and in 2007/2008, interests were acquired in two new projects along the easily accessed low altitude 1400km Coastal Cordillera (IOCG Belt) of Northern Chile. The Belt hosts Freeport-McMoran’s Candelaria mine (470Mt @ 0.95% Cu, 0.22g/t Au) and Anglo American’s Manto Verde mine (350Mt @ 0.75% Cu) and others. Mariana’s Buenaventura and Perro Chico projects are located along this belt and both have significant IOCG potential. Targets have been developed at both projects during 2008 and 2009, mostly from the use of gravity surveying, with drilling in October/November 2009. Mariana maintains an active project generation programme in selected areas along the IOCG Belt. (Mariana also has a 1% NSR royalty in the Charango silver prospect, El Salvador Region, which is a joint venture between Hochschild Mining and Anglo American.)
Gravity surveying has been used effectively in Australia in IOCG discovery beneath cover rocks and in Chile, the Santo Domingo IOCG discovery (383Mt @ 0.57% Cu), 150km north of Candelaria by Far West Mining Ltd is attributed to gravity. IOCGs are economically important complex copper deposits hosted within hydrothermal systems with associated iron oxides and can be enriched in gold, silver, uranium and rare earths. They display strong hydrothermal alteration, brecciation, important regional and local structures and geophysical expressions in the form of prominent magnetic or gravity anomalies. The major IOCG mines are located in South Australia, Queensland, NE Brazil and N Chile. The Northern Chile IOCG Belt is considered one of the world’s most prominent IOCG belts.
