SLSR - Solaris Announces Award of Option to Acquire Key Concessions Hosting Porphyry Copper and Epithermal Gold Potential Adjacent to Warintza | Benzinga
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Solaris Resources Inc. (TSX:SLS, NYSE:SLSR) ("Solaris" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Ecuadorian state-owned mining company, Empresa Nacional Minera ("ENAMI EP"), has awarded the Company an option to acquire up to a 100% interest in 10 new explorations concessions. These concessions comprise a land package of ~40,000 hectares adjacent to the Warintza Project ("Warintza" or "the Project") and San Carlos-Panantza porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits within the prolific Zamora belt that hosts Ecuador's largest copper and gold mines to the south.
Highlights
- The new concessions are interpreted to host porphyry copper and epithermal gold potential based on analysis of multiple layers of data, including the Company's comprehensive heliborne magnetic survey, a portion of which is included in Figure 2
- A number of porphyry copper targets are represented by open-ended annular magnetic highs enclosing magnetic lows and erosional depressions, consistent with outcropping deposits within the Warintza porphyry cluster
- Structural interpretation supports epithermal gold potential within dilational jogs and pull-apart basins, a common setting for deposits in this belt, with adjacent areas representing similar settings to the Caya epithermal target (refer to press release dated April 23, 2024)
- Fieldwork is set to begin with two field crews on the ground in May
Figure 1 - Warintza Project and Surrounding Land Package in Ecuador
Note: San Carlos-Panantza, Mirador and Fruta del Norte are independent of Solaris and no inferences can be drawn.
Figure 2 - Warintza Structural Framework and Target Concepts
Zamora Intrusive Complex
Most of the significant copper and gold deposits in southeastern Ecuador are located within or immediately adjacent to the Zamora Intrusive Complex that forms a belt approximately 300km long, bounded to the north and south by northeast-trending shear zones. In addition to the Company's Warintza porphyries, major deposits not owned by the Company include the adjacent San Carlos-Panantza porphyries, and to the south, the Mirador porphyries, Fruta del Norte epithermal deposit, and Nambija skarn deposits.
Porphyry Targets
The main cluster of Warintza porphyries lie in a fault-bounded wedge that opens to the east. North-south compression at the time of mineralization resulted in the expulsion of the wedge towards the east, creating local transtensional areas into which porphyries were intruded. The Warintza cluster is enclosed by an open-ended annular magnetic high which corresponds to magnetite accumulation in the outer rim of the cluster, with the porphyries represented by magnetic lows. Warintza South sits outside the main cluster and is represented by a large standalone magnetic low adjacent to a wedge-bounding fault.
A similar structural wedge is interpreted from magnetic, LIDAR ...