Drilling will be carried out over five years and each campaign will have an estimated duration of 10 months, El Encierro said in its environmental impact application to the Chilean regulator.
Data from Antofagasta shows the prospective area is a classic copper-gold-molybdenum type porphyry, with the superposition of an intermediate sulfidation epithermal system. The project represents one of the few occurrences of high-grade porphyry type mineralization in the El Indio-Pascua belt.
Only 15% of the mining property has been drilled to date and there is a target with high exploration potential. Antofagasta is the majority shareholder and operator.
Barrick Gold has said it is looking to its growth portfolio to double its copper production by 2031 to 1 billion pounds of the coveted metal.
The company has up its game in Pakistan, where its $7 billion Reko Diq mine is expected to reach production in 2028 at an initial rate of 550…
