Carrizal Property
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Project Location:
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Coastal Cordillera Chile
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Project Profile:
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Mature Exploration
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Commodities:
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Copper, Gold, Silver, Cobalt
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The Carrizal Property is located approximately 130 km south of Copiapo and lies adjacent to the historic Carrizal Alto mining complex. The Carrizal Property encompasses two distinct projects, the Farellon and the Perth. The Farellón project was mined on a limited basis during the 1940’s after the Carrizal Alto mine had already ceased operation, 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. The Perth project has several veins, the Puenta Negra, Argentina and Dos Amigos that have historically been mined, but no records can be found.
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. 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 high copper and gold prices in recent years have led to reprocessing of any available tailings and waste dumps.