Conference Proceedings
PACRIM 2019
Conference Proceedings
PACRIM 2019
The geology and mineralisation of the world-class Alpala porphyry copper-gold deposit in northern Ecuador
The Alpala porphyry copper-gold deposit is a recent discovery in northern Ecuador (Figure 1). The deposit lies within the Cascabel Project which is about 100 km north of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and 50 km north-northwest of Ibarra in Imbabura Province. The project is located about 20 km south of the border with Colombia and 130 km east of the Pacific Ocean port of Esmeraldas. Cascabel lies about 60 km northeast of the Llurimagua (Junin) porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit.The Cascabel concession consists of about 50 km2 (49,785 hectares) claim, licensed for advanced exploration by the Ecuador Government. The concession is controlled by Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (ENSA), which is owned by SolGold Plc. (85%) and Cornerstone Capital Resources (15%). The current license was granted in March, 2011 and is valid for 25 years.The Alpala deposit formed in the Eocene (~39 Ma; Garwin et al., 2017), which is similar in age to the giant La Escondida and El Abra deposits in Chile (Cunningham et al., 2008).The most recent resource estimate (20 November, 2018) for Alpala contains 2.95 Bt at 0.52% copper-equivalent (10.9 Mt Cu, 23.2 Moz Au, 79% Indicated) at a cut-off of 0.2% CuEq, which includes 420 Mt at 1.47% CuEq (3.8 Mt Cu, 12.3 Moz Au, 97% Indicated) at a cut-off of 0.9% CuEq. At a 0.45% CuEq cut-off, the deposit contains 960 Mt at 0.97% CuEq (6.1 Mt Cu, 16.2 Moz Au). The reported copper-equivalent values are calculated using the formula: CuEq (%) = Cu (%) + [0.63 * Au (g/t)], which equates to a $US 3.00 per pound copper and $US 1300 per troy ounce gold. There is strong potential for growth, with the 2019 drilling campaign focussed on expanding the resource by drilling to the northwest, northeast, southeast and up-dip. CITATION: Garwin, S, Whistler, B, Vaca, S, Ward, J, Mather, N, Silva, J, Rosero, B, Cruz, A, Diaz, C, Chafla, A, Mantilla, S, Aguilar, L, Chand, M, Guachamin, A, Morales, K and Guerrero, N, 2019. The geology and mineralisation of the world-class Alpala porphyry copper-gold deposit in northern Ecuador, in Proceedings PACRIM 2019, pp 181188 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).
Contributor(s):
S Garwin, B Whistler, S Vaca, J Ward, N Mather, J Silva, B Rosero, A Cruz, C Diaz, A Chafla, S Mantilla, L Aguilar, M Chand, A Guachamin, K Morales, N Guerrero
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