VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed base metals miner Hudbay Minerals has signed agreements to acquire a suite of mining properties located near its Constancia mine, in Peru.
The TSX- and NYSE-listed company reported on Monday that its subsidiary HudBay Peru will acquire an option from a private Peruvian consortium to earn a 100% interest in the Caballito (formerly Katanga) and Maria Reyna mining properties. It will also acquire 100% of the Kusiorcco mining properties from Panoro Minerals.
Hudbay advised that the Caballito property, located about 3 km northwest of Constancia, is a 120 ha concession block and is the site of the former Katanga mine, which was in intermittent copper oxide production from the early 1900s to the early 1990s.
The Maria Reyna property, located within 10 km of Constancia, is a 5 850 ha concession block. Diamond drilling by a previous optionee of the Maria Reyna property resulted in a copper skarn-porphyry discovery. Geophysical surveys and geological mapping have also been conducted on the property and the area remains very prospective for additional discoveries.
The Kusiorcco property, located within 7 km of Constancia, is a 3 962 ha concession block nearby the Caballito and Maria Reyna properties.
Hudbay will now start with permitting, community relations and technical activities required to access and conduct drilling activities on the concessions and expects to provide further details on its exploration plans for these properties in due course.
These mineral properties are situated within the regional mineralisation trend of the Andahuaylas-Yauri belt and provide Hudbay with a large, contiguous block of mineral rights to explore for mineable deposits within trucking distance of the Constancia processing facility.