La Libertad
Libertad 22 is a 2 sq km concession acquired by Condor in June 2007 in a sealed bid mining auction. Other bidders included Teck, Bear Creek, and Hochschild. Libertad 22 was originally owned by BHP but dropped when they left Peru in 2006. In July 2010, Condor acquired the adjoining Antash 105 concession by staking, bringing the total project area of La Libertad to 5 sq km, all of which is 100% owned.La Libertad is located in the Ancash Department in northern Peru, about 280 km north of Lima and 80 km west of the Antamina Cu-Zn mine, at elevations ranging from 2700 to 3400m above sea level. The property covers the core of an intensely altered intrusive porphyry copper system in the Cordillera Occidental de los Andes copper belt.
Fracture zones within the system exhibit very high-grade secondary copper mineralization in the form of chalcocite, malachite and chrysocolla. Recent prospecting and sampling work in the E-W trending Shemur quebrada (gully) found exposed secondary copper enrichment occurring as disseminations, veinlets and fracture coatings of chalcocite, covellite, malachite and chrysocolla, along with well developed quartz-limonite stockwork veining in an intensely altered phyllic (quartz-sericite) quartz-feldspar porphyry intrusive. Intermittent secondary copper enrichment extends in outcrop for approximately 600 meters along the exposed bottom of the quebrada.
Some 395 rock and soil samples were collected, including 3 to 5 meter long rock chip samples. Assay results from the samples returned values ranging from negligible to a peak of 39.9% Cu, 8.3% Zn, 1.1 g/t Au, 19.8 g/t Ag, 0.41% Mo, and 0.4% Pb associated with the chip samples. The bottom of the Shemur quebrada returned the most elevated copper values. The distribution and values obtained from the sample program suggest a vertical downward zonation from molybdenum to copper, with an upper molybdenum shell or carapace surrounding a copper core some 300 to 400m below.
Based on the size of the porphyry copper system on the property, the intensity of alteration, the strongly developed quartz-limonite stockwork vein system, and the presence of high grade secondary copper enrichment, Condor geologists believe that the La Libertad prospect exhibits potential to host a significant porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit. Preliminary observations suggest similar geology to the La Granja deposit (3.2 billion tonnes grading 0.62% Cu) located about 380km further north within the same mineralized belt.
A 5 line kilometer geophysical induced polarization (IP) and magnetometer survey was completed at La Libertad in early 2010. The survey comprised two lines across the property in an east-west and north-south direction to cover the porphyry copper mineralization exposed in the bottom of the Shemur Quebrada.
The IP survey outlined a 1.5 km diameter resistivity anomaly along both lines that occurs at an average depth of 150m below the bottom of the Shemur Quebrada. Together with earlier sampling and mapping results, Condor has interpreted this resistivity anomaly to be the phyllic altered leached cap and secondary copper enrichment associated with a mineralized intrusive porphyry. In addition, Condor interprets an associated increase in chargeability with depth to indicate the potential presence of primary Cu-Mo mineralization.
The magnetic survey also delineated a circular anomalous magnetic low coincident with the location of the mapped porphyry Cu-Mo centre and high geochemical values. As in the case of the IP results, this has been interpreted to represent the phyllic altered core of the mineralized porphyry.
An application has been made for a drill permit to test the property, and agreements have also been signed with the local community near La Libertad.
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