MMG web site has removed La Plata's 43-101 resource..........that was featured on the main page.
This suggests that the revised resource at La Plata is imminent.
The inclusion of gold and PGE's will increase the equivelant grade of the ore body.
I watched an interview that Scott did after the 2023 Bear Creek Summit in Colorado and he reiterated what it was that NEM wants to see in La Plata for economic viability:
NEM wants to see 50-100 million tonnes of 1% equivalent grade (copper).
7:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnLPU2KKwYg
********************************************************************************** La Plata's resource is 147 million tonnes of .41% Cu Eq- NEM wants to see 50-100 million tonnes of 1% grade to be feasible
The existing NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate of 1,317 lbs CuEq consisting of 147.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.41% copper equivalent (“Cu Eq”) (0.37% Cu and 3,72 g/t Ag) announced
July 2022*
Next up is the revised resource with the 2023 drilling and the PGE's included in the tabulation.
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- As announced in February 2023, LAP22-04 was a continuously mineralized discovery drill hole that intercepted 816 m grading 0.41% recovered copper equivalent1 (“CuEq”), with significant widths exceeding 0.5% to 0.7% Cu. The intersection also included higher grade zones exceeding 1% Cu with precious metals grades of up to 11.5 g/t Au+PGE and 47 g/t Ag.
- Drill hole LAP23-05 intersected 909 m of continuous mineralization from surface grading 0.26% CuEq over the entire hole length, with a 550 m wide higher-grade zone.
- Drilling has extended mineralization vertically from surface to more than 1.5 kilometers (‘km”) and 1 km along trend and is anticipated to allow for inclusion of both gold and platinum group elements in future mineral resource estimates along with copper and silver.
- "Our drill results indicate a significant opportunity for resource expansion and have continued to return both broad zones of mineralization and internal higher-grade zones with considerable precious metal associations showing elevated gold, platinum, and palladium values." Scott Petsel April 16,2024
The revised resource is the Allard system drilling and Scott remarked in the interview that the 2023 drilling was successful in that the high-grade zones were rich enough to meet NEM's criteria for development.
Allard is only one of many porphyry centers identified in the district.
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Significant high-grade results were received in surface rock samples taken frommore than 20 different target areas during the field season. Several of these surface target zones have returned percent level copper grades with significant silver, gold, and PGE values in rock sampling that have never been drill tested.
This work has identified significant drill-ready targets at Morningstar, Renegade, and Copper Hill, which may represent new porphyry center discoveries on the La Plata property. Follow up work is planned on at these targets in 2024 along with work to advance additional surface targets to a drill-ready stage.
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Scott Petsel, stated, “The 2023 exploration program was a major step forward in our understanding of the higher-grade controls to mineralization in the Allard resource area and in the advancement of several exciting surface target zones that demonstrate percent level copper with precious metals that have never been drill tested. Our emerging vision for the La Plata project is that we have the potential for a district-scale system with multiple porphyry centers in addition to the Allard resource area. This is supported by the multi-kilometer scale metal-in-soil values that extend well beyond the area of drilling and correspond with strong alteration responses in our detailed district-scale airborne hyperspectral survey. Our drill results indicate a significant opportunity for resource expansion and have continued to return both broad zones of mineralization and internal higher-grade zones with considerable precious metal associations showing elevated gold, platinum, and palladium values."