Overview

Summary

Ownership

Lunahuasi is 100% owned by NGEx Minerals.

Location

Lunahuasi is located in the Andes Mountains of San Juan Province, Argentina, approximately 10 kilometres south of the Los Helados project located in Region III, Chile.

Access to both Lunahuasi and Los Helados is via Copiapó, Chile (a driving distance of about 177 kilometres), or from San Juan, Argentina (a driving distance of approximately 264 kilometres).

Geology

The new discovery at Lunahuasi is situated in the central part of the Vicuña structural-magmatic corridor, approximately mid-way between the Los Helados porphyry-copper-gold deposit 10 kilometres to the north, and the Filo del Sol porphyry-epithermal system 9 kilometres to the south. It occurs in a structurally complex area within the district where northeast-trending faults that are related to a deep-seated lithospheric-scale structure transect the dominant north-northeast trend of the Vicuña belt.

Drilling in early 2023 discovered a copper-gold-silver mineralized vein swarm within pre-mineral host rocks. Massive pyrite and enargite occur within mineralized structures that have siliceous cores, vuggy silica, and advanced argillic alteration. The structures are vertical to steeply subvertical and appear to trend primarily north-northeast, although additional work is required to fully understand their orientation, and analogy with similar deposits suggests there may be several orientations of mineralized structures. Where drilled to date, they have estimated true widths of up to almost 100 metres. Limited surface mapping suggests at least a one kilometre continuous trend to the vein system, although further work needs to be completed to adequately test the dimensions of the system.

The discovery area  is situated near the base of a steep east-facing slope at the head of the Rio Blanco valley. While the veins themselves display advanced argillic alteration, they are emplaced into propylitic altered wall rock. Upslope to the west, however, the alteration changes quickly to a thickness of 500 metres of sericitic alteration capped by advanced argillic alteration. The indication is that the new discovery is likely part of a much larger porphyry-epithermal system with over 800 metres of vertical thickness to the west, above the new discovery, that is yet to be explored.

Exploration Potential

The mineralization at Lunahuasi was discovered in 2023. Six holes were drilled into the discovery zone, all of which had multiple high-grade intersections, and it remains open in all directions. There remains excellent potential for expanding the system.

Mineralization is remarkably consistent throughout the deposit, typically occurring as coarse-grained pyrite, enargite and lesser covellite, ranging from disseminations through semi-massive and breccia-fill textures to massive sulphide zones up to several metres in core length.  The system displays a clear transition from discreet high-grade structures separated by unmineralized and propylitically altered wall rock in the east towards higher temperature alteration and stockwork and disseminated mineralization to the west.

The more continuous mineralization in the western portion of the holes is comprised of consistent alteration of the host rhyolite and andesite cut by an apparent stockwork of massive sulphide veins ranging from 5cm to 5m thick.  This progression of mineralization from discreet structures in the east to a more homogeneous stockwork zone in the west is interpreted to represent a transition towards the centre of the system which is thought to be further west than the extent of the current holes.

Mineralization has been drilled to 1.1 kilometres vertically below surface and, although access to the steep surface topography is difficult above the drilled area, we see massive silica zones which are interpreted to represent the surface outcrop of the structures we are drilling. 

As of the end of the 2023-2024 season, we have drilled various mineralized zones throughout a 750m x 890m x 180m volume, and with only 21 holes into the deposit, we are still early on the learning curve. However, what we are seeing is consistent with the drilled mineralization being the peripheral part of a much larger system.