Ivanhoe Electric Inc. (“Ivanhoe Electric”) (NYSE American: IE; TSX: IE) Executive Chairman Robert Friedland and President and Chief Executive Officer Taylor Melvin are pleased to provide an update on the activities of the BHP Exploration Alliance in the Southwest U.S. (the “Alliance”).
Mr. Friedland commented: “The Basin and Range province of the Southwest U.S. remains one of the most promising frontiers for porphyry exploration. Together with BHP, we have deployed a new generation Typhoon system to look for potential world-class deposits that are hidden from the surface by younger cover rocks.”
Mr. Melvin commented: “We are pleased with the rapid progress made by our exploration alliance with BHP and look forward to completing our first Typhoon survey at an Area of Interest located in Arizona. Our alliance is proving to be an effective platform to pursue exploration opportunities that are well-suited for Ivanhoe Electric’s exploration technologies, looking deep below the surface for new sources of copper and other critical metals in the Southwest U.S.”
The Alliance is focused on exploring mineral deposits hidden under post-mineral cover. It received an initial funding commitment of $15 million from BHP and is operated by Ivanhoe Electric’s exploration team.
The Alliance is actively exploring six designated Areas of Interest (“AOI”) within Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Any Joint Venture that is agreed to be established within these areas will operate under a 50/50 ownership structure.
The first Typhoon survey of the Alliance has commenced, exploring a major porphyry copper trend in Arizona
A new-generation Typhoon unit was mobilized in early December to commence the Alliance’s first deep-penetrating geophysical survey. The initial Typhoon survey is being completed along a well-known and major porphyry copper trend, with a significant production history and a large endowment of copper in current reserves and resources in the region.
During the first phase of the Alliance, exploration teams have been deployed to advance reconnaissance work, geochemical sampling, and detailed geological mapping programs across the AOIs in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. In addition, over 5,600 line-kilometers of airborne magnetic surveying and 1,500 line-kilometers of hyperspectral surveying have been completed so far.
The results of exploration fieldwork and three-dimensional inversion of geophysical data were used to inform subsequent land acquisition and Typhoon planning. So far, over 110 square kilometers of unpatented mining claims have been staked across Arizona and New Mexico.
Once the initial survey is complete, the Typhoon results will be processed by Computational Geosciences Inc. The resulting data will then be integrated with other datasets to develop the Alliance’s first drill targets.
