News of a surprising copper porphyry discovery and unprecedented land rush by the majors in Brazil has been making the rounds for a while now, but the only relevant thing I can find on page 1 of google results when I search “anglo american brazil copper porphyry” was published by Otto Rock on IKN in January, 2018. Thanks, Otto!
It’s exciting to be early to a big story like this, just ask Altamira Gold (TSXV: ALTA). Michael Bennett, President & CEO, and Alan Carter, Chairman, which have been active in Latin America for their whole careers, leading Altamira to have 100% ownership (already!) of 12 licenses strategically placed in areas that comprise +200,000 hectares in the prolific Juruena belt, which is part of the Alta Floresta district. There was extensive, basic surface gold mining in this district in the 1980s, estimated at 7-10 million ounces of gold.
As Mr. Michael Bennett said in our first interview in October 2017,
“The story, really, is a story of following up old garimpeiro workings from the late '70s, '80s and taking a window of opportunity in Brazil, which wasn't really available in those times because there were too many artisanal miners on the properties, and making sure that we picked up the best property packages in the early 2000s in order to be able to get this position now, which is going to be unique in the future.”
A placer gold rush is one thing, but a copper porphyry rush by majors is something else entirely. How aggressively the majors came into the Alta Floresta area around Altamira in the last few months reflects a certain desperation for large new discoveries. Will this prove to become an area where majors cannot afford to not have property?
Read on for a short interview with Mr. Michael Bennett and Mr. Alan Carter about what happened, what it means, and what’s next for Altamira Gold.
Peter Bell: Just for a quick recap, you have a NI 43-101 resource for the Cajueiro project from years ago when it was owned by ECI, which was a company you managed. You got some good results from surface trenching there in 2017 and also did some work at Crepori, but that was disappointing. Your work at Cajueiro has been driven by a massive gold-in-soil anomaly and there’s a clear pathway to upgrade the resource there, right?
Alan Carter: That’s right, Peter. I think the numbers we're getting on surface at Cajueiro are good – there aren’t a lot of other companies that have similar grades on surface with the upside potential that we do, given the enormous size of the multiple gold-in-soil anomalies. I think it's going to be a significant gold deposit in Brazil. It's already the largest hard rock gold deposit in the Juruena Belt, but I think it could be a lot larger.
Peter Bell: It's a bit humbling because the company has other assets too, right?
Alan Carter: Right. We have 11 other areas. It's an exciting project to be part of.
Michael Bennett: In total, the company has about +200,000 hectares. One of the things we've been reflecting on recently, following the staking rush in the area since September of last year, is that we're the only junior in the center of the belt. That's quite a unique position.
Alan Carter: We’ve been there exploring for gold for a while, so we were there prior to these major companies coming in and staking ground. The main one, of course, is Anglo American but there are several others that have acquired large land locks on the edge of the belt.
Peter Bell: Sounds like a rush!
Alan Carter: I think that's a fair comment. It's unprecedented. In all the time that we've been working in Brazil, which is probably getting to 25-30 years between Mike and I, we've never seen a major company take such a large land position. And it's not just the one company either. There are several now that seemed to have joined in. It's a very interesting situation.
Peter Bell: It was mining exploration week in Vancouver one short month ago and there was a lot of buzz around the phrase “strategic investment”. Do you guys have relationships with any of the majors that have come into the area?
Alan Carter: We're now at stages in our career where we know all the guys who are managing these exploration efforts for the major companies, particularly in Latin America where Mike and I spent our whole careers.
I think there's a lot of interest in the copper space right now and I think it's going to continue to grow as the transition to electric vehicles accelerates. Your average car contains about 25 pounds of copper now, but the average electric car is going to contain about 250 pounds of copper. That's going to have huge consequences for the copper market going forward. This new copper discovery that has reportedly been made means our region could be the worlds’ next major copper belt. We’re right in the middle of it!
Peter Bell: I heard mention of this porphyry but don’t have the full story. What’s going on there?
Michael Bennett: Anglo American has a block of ground on the east side of the belt. The word on the street is that they have cut a fairly large intersection in a porphry with extensive copper mineralization. As Alan says, it's a brand-new region. If you have packages with 15-20 kilometers strike length of gold, then there has to be something sourcing all of this. We believe that we're sitting on top of a root source in several of our areas.
Peter Bell: Aha! With all the geophysics and other work, you’ve done, you would seem to have some good basis for that kind of statement. Exciting stuff. How about ages of rocks here?
Alan Carter: These rocks are pretty ancient. They are Proterozoic and are probably a bit younger than the stuff in Ontario and Quebec, but not much. This is cow country – it looks like Alberta or Texas.
Peter Bell: Okay. Sounds like there’s been a lot of erosion in the area. How about level of oxidation?
Michael Bennett: The surface material is oxidized, depending on where you are in the topographic profile. If you're on higher ground, then the oxidized material probably goes down to 15-20 meters. If you're in the lower valleys it could go down to 30-60 meters.
Peter Bell: It's amazing how shallow that is. At first, I was thinking with all the water in the area that it would cause more oxidation but the water table is closer to surface and that gives less space for the sulfuric acid to form from the sulphides and start doing its thing. Again, how about that root source you mentioned – how will you start to work on that?
Michael Bennett: We're looking at several aspects here, Peter. What we've done so far at the end of 2017 is taken our airborne geophysical data on the Cajueiro project, had it reinterpreted by a geophysicist who has experience in the area, and that's generated some interesting areas of attack for us for the next few months.
Peter Bell: You already have a long list of things to do, adding a porphyry to the company is just shocking!
Michael Bennett: We're in the process of re-assaying some of the core in some of our southern properties where we have indications of copper. We will also do soil surveys in other areas where we believe there is copper, as well.
Peter Bell: That's a great set of work programs to start on a potential porphyry – reinterpreting the geophysics, re-assaying the core, and new soil sampling. No trenching for the porphyry yet? It’s probably too deep anyways, but anything’s possible.
Michael Bennett: We're going to concentrate that on Cajueiro for the time being. If we dilute our focus too much, then we're not going to have such an impact with our program.
Peter Bell: How is access in the porphyry area – is it similar to the cattle country as at Cajueiro?
Michael Bennett: Yes, it’s a similar area. Very easy area to get into.
Peter Bell: Wonderful, I look forward to hearing more about all this! Thank you very much.
Michael Bennett: Thank you very much, Peter.
The first results from this work program are out today and they look good. The company moved quickly on this and has already completed meaningful work, with the reinterpretation of geophysics at Cajueiro identifying “14 discrete targets with magnetic and/or radiometric responses that may be consistent with concealed porphyry-style mineralization at depth” and assays of samples from Apiacás, Colíder, and Firmino identifying +1% copper. The picture shows drill core from Altamira Gold’s Colíder project, which assayed at 1.05% Cu and 18.59g/t Au over 4.1m.
This document contains statements that are forward looking statements and are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in the Company’s periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. Such information contained herein represents management’s best judgment as of the date hereof based on information currently available. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Peter Bell has not been compensated to prepare and distribute this promotional material.
