Canadian resource management company Cerro de Pasco Resources has secured the required authorisation to initiate exploration activities at its Quiulacocha tailings project in Peru.
Granted by the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines, the permit is the first authorisation of this type to be granted in Peru for a new mining exploration project within a tailings storage facility.
Cerro de Pasco Resources is currently installing its first drill rig to commence its phase I of the drilling programme at the Quiulacocha tailings project.
Simultaneously, the company has completed the initial geophysical studies to outline the bottom surface of the tailings deposit.
A subsidiary of Grupo Ingetrol, Ingetrol Comercial, has been appointed to undertake the phase I drilling campaign. The campaign will involve drilling 40 holes over eight weeks, with more than 1,000 tailings samples to be collected.
According to Cerro de Pasco, these samples will provide detailed data on the depth of the tailings.
Cerro de Pasco president, CEO, and director Guy Goulet said: “This is a significant milestone for the country: This is the first ever drilling authorisation granted for a new mining exploration project over tailings in the history of Peru, not related to a beneficiation concession.
“It is also a very exciting stage for CDPR as we will finally discover the true value of the QT tailings and be able to produce a Master Plan for the entire Quiulacocha tailings resource. CDPR will update the market with drill results as soon as they become available.”
Inspectorate Services Perú, a subsidiary of Bureau Veritas, will conduct the geochemical and metallurgical testing of the samples.
The samples will be initially analysed in Lima, Peru, for 60-element ICP analysis and other assays before being sent to Antofagasta, Chile, for further metallurgical testing.
This will determine the mineral resource estimate and appropriate metallurgical methods for reprocessing the Quiulacocha tailings.
Geomain Ingenieros, a Peruvian geophysical firm, has completed over 9,000m of geophysical surveys on the dry portion of the tailings. Preliminary results indicate that the tailings deposit may exceed 40m in depth in certain areas.
Located on the “El Metalurgista” concession held by Cerro de Pasco Resources, the Quiulacocha tailings storage facility covers about 115ha and contains an estimated 75 million tonnes of material processed from the 1920s to the 1990s.
The tailings originated from the extraction of over 16 million tonnes of copper-silver-gold ore and 58 million tonnes of zinc-lead-silver ore.
Cerro de Pasco said that the project is anticipated to offer economic benefits, contribute to environmental restoration, and generate job opportunities in the region.
