The contiguous Palo Negro and Hornitos properties, 100% owned by Power Nickel (formerly Chilean Metals), together comprise over 9,000 hectares (23,000 acres) in the Atacama Province of Chile’s Third Region. The properties cover a 14 km strike length of the Atacama Structural Zone, locus of numerous high-grade Cu, Au, Ag and Fe deposits including the large Candelaria deposit of Lundin Mining Corporation less than 30 km to the northeast. Pre-mining reserves at the Candelaria IOCG deposit stood at 470Mt grading 0.95% Cu, 0.22 g/t Au and 3.1 g/t Ag.
Lying on a splay fault of the Atacama Structural Zone, Candelaria is the largest of the iron oxide copper-gold deposits in the Punta del Cobre belt, and the second largest IOCG deposit in the world after Olympic Dam, Australia.
The Palo Negro and Hornitos properties are easily accessible by a network of well-maintained gravel roads 10 km from the Pan-American Highway. The properties are well situated for low-cost exploration and future mine development.
The Osorniña mine is situated on a small third party concession within the Palo Negro property. Magnetic surveys show an intense magnetic response over a strike length of 2.5 kms extending well beyond the Osorniña mine and coincident with the Atacama fault. Meta-sediments and meta-volcanics in this area have been hydrothermally altered by the introduction of iron oxides and copper. This and similar magnetic anomalies delineated over the Palo Negro & Hornitos properties are priority IOCG targets.
IOCG deposits are generally responsive to magnetic and induced polarization (IP) surveys. Future exploration of the Palo Negro and Hornitos properties will require further geophysical surveys to define exploration targets, followed by reverse circulation drilling.
