Mike Fagan,
Editor
Nov. 10, 2021
Chakana Copper Corp. (TSX-V: PERU)(OTC: CHKKF), currently trading around C$0.33 per share, has released assays for 12 additional resource definition holes at the Huancarama target at its flagship Soledad copper-gold-silver project, Peru — highlighted by 113 meters of 0.92% copper, 72.8 grams per tonne silver, and 0.90 g/t gold.
That particular highlight intercept equates to a grade of 2.13% copper-equivalent (CuEq) over 100-plus meters and complements previous results from the Huancarama breccia pipe target.
The results are part of the company’s fully-funded, 32,000-meter exploration and resource drilling program — which delivered a game-changing intercept of 27.39% copper and 967.7 g/t silver over 12 meters — ahead of a planned initial resource estimate slated for year-end.
Chakana Copper president & CEO, David Kelley — whom you’re about to hear directly from — commented via press release.
“Results for the resource definition drilling at Huancarama have been outstanding thus far. This is a large breccia pipe that is part of a much larger breccia complex. The resource drilling has focused on the east side of the breccia complex where two breccia pipes coalesce into one larger pipe with excellent grades for copper, gold, and silver. We have additional resource definition drill results to release for Bx 5 and Huancarama as we close in on the first resource ever for this new discovery.”
That forthcoming resource estimate will include interpretation from 6 breccia pipes drilled down to about 300 meters, all of which remain open at depth. The breccia pipes to be included in the maiden resource estimate are Bx 1, Bx 5, Bx 6, Paloma East, Paloma West, and Huancarama.
Keep in mind also that the Chakana field team estimates there to be somewhere between 50 and 100 breccia pipes at Soledad with only 15 out of 110 known targets drill-tested to date.
Our own Gerardo Del Real of Junior Resource Monthly caught up with Chakana CEO, David Kelley, to go over the latest batch of assays from Huancarama in the interview below. Mr. Kelley also gives us a look ahead to the highly-anticipated maiden resource estimate...
That means there’s a ton of potential for resource expansion by way of the drill not only at numerous other targets at Soledad but also at depth where drilling has penetrated only the first few hundred meters.
On the macro front, copper continues to trade firmly above US$4.40 per pound. And because of its high electrical and thermal conductivity, the red metal is poised to play an ever-increasing role in the green energy revolution.
As communities build new windmills, solar farms, and industrial-scale batteries, the world is building a supply-demand imbalance in copper. For instance, solar panels use 5.5 tonnes of copper per megawatt. Wind turbines on land use 3.9 tonnes of copper per megawatt. Offshore wind turbines use a whopping 10.5 tonnes of copper.
According to ABB Velocity Suite research, the US-installed 3.5 gigawatts of new wind farms in the first half of 2020 and has another 21 gigawatts under construction. That works out to more than 95,000 tonnes of copper.
And according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, there are 115 gigawatts of new solar projects under construction or development. Those will require another 728,000 tonnes of copper.
The US consumed 1.6 million tonnes of copper in 2020. Henceforth, these energy projects alone equal 40% of that demand. The copper demand from just the wind and solar projects in the US is equal to about 3% of global copper mine output.
And that doesn’t even take into account the global EV boom.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects that by 2040, 58% of all global vehicle sales will be electric. That’s over 55 million EVs being sold annually — a nearly 20-fold increase from the 3 million being sold today.
And while conventional cars average around 20 to 50 pounds of copper, EVs and hybrids actually require much more — upward of 85 to 180 pounds of copper per vehicle.
So yes, the timing appears right for Chakana Copper as it progresses its flagship Soledad copper-gold-silver project in the Ancash province of central Peru.
Check out additional Chakana Copper news, interviews, and much more.
You can also access our feature report on Chakana Copper Corp. here.
Yours in profits,
Mike Fagan
Editor, Resource Stock Digest