Summo confirms SE Extension

An ongoing 50-hole drill program by Summo Minerals (SMA-T) on the SE Extension copper oxide deposit in southeastern Utah has so far extended the deposit for at least 2,200 ft.

The program covers a 2,200-by-800-ft. area adjacent to the proposed Centennial pit. It is designed to test the newly discovered Centennial SE Extension zone along strike to the southeast and to infill between the previously drilled 15 holes. All but one of the 15 holes cut the new zone over an average thickness of 44 ft., with an average grade of 0.504% copper.

To date, Summo has completed 39 additional holes. The first 13 holes hit an average grade of 0.82% copper over 55 ft. The last three averaged 1.03% copper over 35 ft. Highlights include:

– hole 29, which intersected 40 ft. grading 0.87% copper;

– hole 31, which cut 20 ft. of 0.55% copper; and

– hole 32, which returned 45 ft. of 1.38% copper.

The new zone lies 250 ft. below the surface in the Dakota sandstone and in the underlying Burro Canyon Formation sandstone. The mineralization, which consists of fine-grained chalcocite and bornite, remains open to the southeast. Initial cyanide leach tests on the new intercepts returned a recovery average of greater than 90%.

The Centennial is the largest of three copper oxide deposits outlined on the Lisbon Valley property in San Juan Cty. Lisbon Valley is already fully permitted for an open-pit/heap-leach operation designed to produce 40 million lbs. cathode copper annually at a cash operating cost of US48 per lb.

The project lies at the southeastern end of the faulted Lisbon salt anticline. The Lisbon Valley Fault is a major axial structure that exhibits up to 4,000 ft. of displacement and, outward from the fault, as much as 1,500 ft. along favourable sandstone beds. The deposit has at least 46.5 million tons of reserves grading 0.43% copper with a 2.36-to-1 stripping ratio. It is still open to expansion.

Lisbon Valley, which is undergoing a feasibility study, was permitted in 1997, but had to fight off an environmental challenge. This was defeated in 1999. Two years earlier, a US$45-million project loan had been approved for the mine, but the loan commitment expired while the company was fighting off the challenge by environmentalists.