Farellon Project

Farellon Project

  • 100% Ownership
  • Copper-Gold-Cobalt
  • Candelaria IOCG Belt, Chile 

Location

The Farellon property consists of four mining and exploration concessions totaling 1096 hectares in the Carrizal Alto mining district located approximately 75 kilometres northwest of the city of Vallenar, 150 kilometres south of Copiapo and 20 kilometres west of the Pan American Highway. The property is easily accessible year round by dirt roads that criss-cross the property and is located close to power, water and a major urban centre, Copiapo, with a readily availablemining workforce.


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Geology & Mineralization

The Farellón property lies on the western margin of the northern portion of the Chilean Coastal cordillera at the contact between Paleaozoicmetasediments and late Jurassic diorites and monzodiorites.

The Farellón property lies over the sheared contact of Paleozoic metasediments in the western portion and Jurassic diorite in the eastern portion. The contact between the metasediments and the diorite is a mylonitic sheared contact striking north-northeast and dipping approximately 65 degrees to the northwest. The metasediments are composed of quartz-feldspar-hornblende gneisses. The diorite underlying the eastern portion of the project area has been extensively intruded by intermediate mafic dykes oriented north-easterly. Locally, a small stock-like felsic body, called Pan de Azucar, with lesser satellite dykes intrudes the diorite. The intrusive relationship between the diorite and metasediments always appears to be tectonic.

The contact zone between the metasediments and the diorites is a mylonitic shear zone ranging from 5 to 15 m in width and host to mineralized quartz-calcite veins. To the north the veins splay off to the east into the diorites. The southern concession of the Farellón property covers a 1.7 km section along strike of the sheared contact and the northern claims overlie a further 0.75 km o f the sheared contact as well as a 1.7 km section of the veining splayed into the diorite.

Vein type, plutonic hosted IOCG deposits such as Carrizal Alto and by extension the Farellón property are characterized by a distinct mineralogy that includes not only copper and gold but also cobalt, nickel, arsenic, molybdenum and uranium. All of the IOCG deposits are partially defined by their iron content in the form of either magnetite or hematite. Typically the vein deposits of the coastal Cordillera are chalcopyrite, actinolite and magnetite deposits.

History 

Mining in the region was historically focused on the Carrizal Alto area to the north of the main Farellón property. However, the Farellón project was mined on a limited basis during the 1940's when Carrizal Alto had for the most part already shut down. Very little information regarding the mining has survived but there is a small amount of historical data located in the SERNAGEOMIN national archives in Santiago.

Historical records indicate that copper mining commenced at Carrizal Alto in the 1820's and continued on a significant scale, mostly by British companies, until 1891 when disastrous flooding occurred and mines closed. The historical reports indicate that the larger mines were obtaining good grades over significant widths in the bottom workings at the time of closure. It is estimated that during this period, in excess of 3 million tonnes with grades in excess of 5% copper and widths of 8m was extracted as well as there was a large quantity of direct shipping ore at 12% copper. At one time there was a considerable body of tails present to support to these figures but the high gold and copper prices over the last few years has lead to the trucking and reprocessing of this material.

A reverse circulation (RC) drill program of 22 drill holes totalling 3,918 meters was completed in 1996-1997. The drilling was conducted at irregular intervals along the mineralized shear and they were sampled at regular one metre sample intervals along their entire length. The drilling confirmed mineralization in the shear zone down to a vertical depth of approximately 200 m. The highest gold result was 21.03 g/t,  the highest copper result was 9.21% and the best cobalt result was 0.58% -- all of these results are over one metre. Significant intersections from this drilling are:

Drill Hole Significant Interval (m) Assay Results
From To Length Gold (g/t) Copper (%) Cobalt (%)
FAR-96-06 49 54 5 0.15 0.73 0.01
FAR-96-07 25 34 9 0.38 1.05 0.02
FAR-96-09 57 84 27 0.51 0.91 0.03
FAR-96-010 31 36 5 1.00 0.68 0.04
FAR-96-011 20 26 6 0.67 0.46 0.02
FAR-96-013 86 93 7 0.87 1.68 0.04
FAR-96-014 77 83 6 0.66 0.85 0.06
FAR-96-015 59 79 20 0.99 0.98 0.06
99 109 10 0.18 1.02 0.03
FAR-96-016 24 26 2 0.95 1.57 0.02
64 70 6 0.73 0.81 0.07

FAR-96-020

 14 16 2 0.46 1.85 0.05

 

 39 43 4 0.75 0.90 0.03

FAR-96-021

 22 25 3 4.17 5.29 0.11
FAR-96-022 29 39 10 1.53 1.31 0.04
100 108 8 3.72 2.49 0.06
FAR-96-023 50 53 3 0.48 1.10 0.06
59 64 5 0.28 0.78 0.03
132 147 15 0.60 1.42 0.03
FAR-96-024 33 36 3 0.94 2.89 0.06
FAR-96-025 65 85 20 0.97 1.22 0.02
FAR-96-028 55 58 3 0.12 0.52 0.06
FAR-96-029 30 34 4 0.18 1.15 0.07
82 87 5 0.09 0.96 0.01

2009 Exploration

Red Metal's first substantial exploration drilling program of 5 reverse circulation holes, totalling725 m, was conducted in September, 2009.The drill program was designed to confirm mineralization from the 1996 drilling and to begin to test mineralization at depth. Significant intersections from this drilling are:


Drill Hole Number		 Assay Interval (m) Assay Grade
  From To Core Length Gold (ppm) Copper (%)
FAR-09-A   31 34 3.0 0.81 1.99
79 109 30.0 0.18 0.62
97 106 9.0 0.44 1.63
FAR-09-B   56 96 40.0 0.27 0.55
including 56 63 7.0 0.22 0.66
  74 96 22.0 0.42 0.79
including 75 86 11.0 0.67 1.35
FAR-09-C   73 103 30.0 0.79 0.55
including 77 82 5.0 4.16 2.57
FAR-09-D   95 134 39.0 0.11 0.58
including 95 103 8.0 0.33 2.02
FAR-09-E   25 30 5.0 0.54 1.35
65 68 3.0 0.58 1.46

2011 Exploration Plans

Download Farellon Project 43-101 Report