Antofagasta lifts estimates at Cachorro, unveils findings for Encierro

Chilean miner Antofagasta said on Tuesday upgraded copper estimates at the Cachorro project and unveiled its inaugural assessment of the Encierro discovery.

Encierro is located in the Chilean High Andes, 600km north of the capital Santiago. Antofagasta is the majority stakeholder of the joint venture project it runs with Barrick Gold and operates the exploration programme.

During 2016 to 2021 drilling identified a significant deposit containing 522 million tonnes (Mt) of resources at 0.79% copper equivalent, the company told participants of a seminar at the 2022 Prospectors and Developers Association in Toronto, Canada.

Antofagasta also provided an update on its wholly-owned Cachorro project where further in-fill drilling increased the deposit size to 155 Mt of inferred resources of 1.20% copper, up from 142 Mt of 1.21% copper reported at the end of December.

The deposit is in the western Atacama Desert in northern Chile, 100 km north-east of the city of Antofagasta and 1,100km north of Santiago. It lies between the Company's Antucoya and Centinela operations and may benefit from the use of their facilities, the company said.