Mark Gordon - Senior Analyst.
We are delighted to have initiated coverage of Southern Hemisphere Mining (ASX: SUH), which is an advanced Chilean copper exploration company with a sizeable existing Resource position.
Work at the company’s Llahuin Copper Project in Chile has highlighted the potential to expand the current 218.2 Mt Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), as well as the discovery of new zones of porphyry copper mineralisation.
The Company has spent ~A$70 million on the Project, largely in drilling, with this reflected in the high confidence in the MRE – with ~70% in the Measured category and ~80% in the Measured and Indicated categories.
The most recent drilling has intersected mineralisation outside of the current MRE, highlighting the potential to increase resources – with the Company aiming to define a “mining inventory” of at least 300 Mt, enough to feed a conceptual 25-year, 12 Mtpa operation.
The Company has spent ~A$70 million on the Project, largely in drilling, with this reflected in the high confidence in the MRE – with ~70% in the Measured category and ~80% in the Measured and Indicated categories.
The most recent drilling has intersected mineralisation outside of the current MRE, highlighting the potential to increase resources – with the Company aiming to define a “mining inventory” of at least 300 Mt, enough to feed a conceptual 25-year, 12 Mtpa operation.
Further drilling has recently commenced at key 100%-owned targets to further test open areas of the mineralisation defined to date, with more drilling also planned on the high-risk/high-reward Curiosity target by the earn-in partners.
In addition to those areas currently being tested, the Project contains several other high-quality targets, included in the 262.7 Mt to 339.9 Mt Exploration Target that is additional to the MRE.
The Company also holds the Los Pumas manganese project in Northern Chile, for which it is looking at options, and two exploration tenement licences in the Proterozoic Collier Basin of Western Australia.
