It’s full steam ahead for Solis Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:SLMN, ASX:SLM) as the exploration season gets underway in Peru. With the doors now open, Solis is looking to move into its next phase of exploration by identifying areas for potential drilling and will then submit environmental permitting applications ahead of potential drilling in Q1 2024.
The Latin American battery minerals-focused company holds a 100% interest in 32,400 hectares of combined licences and applications of highly prospective IOCG (iron oxide copper/gold) and porphyry copper projects in southwestern Peru.
Notably, this is within Peru’s prolific coastal copper belt - a source of nearly half of Peru’s copper production.
Boots on the ground
Solis is set to conduct follow-up ground checking of recently identified remote sensing anomalies and field mapping at Ilo Este, Cinto and Ilo Norte.
The company has processed and interpretated remote sensing Worldview-3 data in conjunction with historic data sets and has identified new target areas at the Ilo Norte and Ilo Este project areas.
Worldview-3 remote sending alteration model overlain on topography and regional geology at Ilo Este.
The recently acquired, extensive historic data set includes airborne geophysics, ground magnetics and geochemistry.
Solis is working across its 42 mining concessions and applications (17 fully granted, with a further 25 being processed), which equates to a significant landholding in an underexplored area.
“It’s great to see exploration commencing again in Peru on what I see as a very large and prospective land position,” executive director Matthew Boyes said.
“There has been a considerable amount of ground acquired by major copper producers and developers close to and around our Cinto and Ilo projects demonstrating the importance of expanding large land position in what we consider to be a significantly unexplored region within this major copper-bearing district.”
High-priority area never drill tested
The recently acquired Worldview-3 (WV3) remote sensing data acquired for Ilo Este has been processed and interpreted.
Results pointed to a delineation of a large high-priority area never drill tested.
While the focus on previous drilling campaigns was targeting zones of argillic alteration and porphyry dykes towards the eastern border of the Ilo Este tenement, the newly acquired higher resolution WV3 remote sensing data has identified an area approximately 500 metres to the west of an historic drill hole IE-DDH-005-15 with a moderate to strong phyllic alteration halo approximately 2 kilometres by 1.5 kilometres in size with associated jarosite alteration.
Solis is now mobilising to site and will start follow-up ground checking and surface sampling of the area to better locate and target drill sites.
Drilling is likely to happen in Q1 2024.
Growing footprint
Solis is creating an extensive footprint in Peru as it pegs additional mining applications in the areas adjacent to the Ilo Norte and Kelly project areas.
Newly applied exploration concessions and existing concessions in Solis portfolio in Peru.
The expansion is strategic as it is in a highly prospective district which has attracted significant interest from major copper producers such as First Quantum and Southern Copper, which owns major infrastructure and processing facilities in the region.