Vancouver, April 3, 2024 – Camino Minerals Corporation (TSXV: COR) (OTC: CAMZF) (WKN: A116E1) (“Camino” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has commenced road building and drilling pad construction at its wholly-owned Maria Cecilia copper porphyry project (“Maria Cecilia” or the “Project”) in Peru. Activities started at the end of March, with drilling to commence by the end of April 2024. Approximately 6 kilometers of roads will be constructed to connect to the existing road network in the area. The Maria Cecilia project is located in the Cordillera Negra mountain range in the Andes at an elevation of 4,300 metres; approximately a 3 hour drive from the nearest mining-supported town of Caraz.
Please see our Maria Cecilia site visit video “Maria Cecilia Project – Where Does Copper Come From?” by Camino CEO, Jay Chmelauskas.
“The drilling program that starts in April at Maria Cecilia provides a chance to make a new copper discovery on a project that has seen over 30,000 metres of historical drilling. Over USD $28 million has been invested in the adjacent projects, defining resources of copper and gold mineralization, but the central porphyry target on our project has never been drilled,” said Camino CEO, Jay Chmelauskas. “It is a bold drilling strategy, but one where multiple pulses of mineralization provide a sizable, rare, and quality opportunity to make a copper discovery.”
The Maria Cecilia complex is a mineralized system of intrusives that extends for over 5 km and hosts the mineral resources of Toropunto, Emmanuel, and the undrilled central porphyry target, Maria Cecilia. The Maria Cecilia target, exhibits the largest magnetic anomaly in the porphyry complex. Camino intends to drill up to two 750 meter holes to intercept a significant magnetic anomaly with the potential to host a robust mineralized porphyry system (Figure 1). Molybdenum has been encountered during previous exploration immediately adjacent to Maria Cecilia, that zonation models indicate potential proximity to a copper source. The proposed drilling program aims to discover ore-grade copper mineralization and associated minerals within the host rocks. This package of rocks is believed to have the potential to host significant mineral deposits characteristic of large-scale porphyry-style mineralization.
Figure 1. Long Section of Maria Cecilia Multi-Intrusive Copper Porphyry System
Figure 2. March 2024, Camino Meets with Local Community to Start Drilling Activities at Maria Cecilia.
Maria Cecilia is in the center of the Northwest-Southeast belt between Toropunto, a copper-molybdenum-gold high-sulphidation epithermal system and the Emmanuel porphyry copper-molybdenum mineralization, hosted in a package of sandstones and limestones of the Goyllarisquizga group. This approximately 20-million-year-old Formation, hosts andesitic porphyry and granodiorite intrusions that could host large-scale concentrations of copper mineralization in the Cordillera Negra belt. At Maria Cecilia there is a 2.0 km Northeast-Southwest zonation, from unaltered calcareous rocks, grading to skarns of brown garnets, green garnets, and pyroxenes with the presence of sulfides, sandstones and hornfels with a stockwork of quartz veinlets, intruded by a porphyritic stock with copper oxides sampled at surface.
The drill holes at Maria Cecilia will seek to define copper mineralization and to estimate the corresponding zonation in the porphyry stock for further follow up drilling.
Figure 3. Profile of the Undrilled Maria Cecilia Porphyry Intrusion Spanning 2 km in Photo Limits
The Company is also pleased to announce the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”) has accepted for filing documentation related to the Company’s earn-in agreement (the “Earn-in Agreement”) with Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd (“Nittetsu”). Following their acceptance, the TSXV has provided conditional acceptance for the issuance of 2,235,295 common shares to a non-related third-party, Resource Play (the “Finder”) as finder’s fees in connection with the Earn-in Agreement. The TSXV has also provided conditional approval for the issuance of a further 882,352 common shares to the Finder if Nittetsu exercises their right under the agreement to contribute their 3rd option instalment payment of CDN$1,500,000 to Camino in May 2024. The finder’s fee agreement was previously announced on February 1, 2023, and June 14, 2023, and the issue of stock to satisfy the finder’s fee was announced on January 10, 2023.
Further to the January 10, 2024, news release, the Company wishes to advise that the TSXV has also provided conditional acceptance for the issuance of 352,942 common shares issued to former Chief Financial Officer, Justin Bourassa. This issuance constitutes a “related party transaction” as defined in Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101”). The Company relied upon the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 under sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the aggregate of the total dollar amount of the severance payment exceeded 25% of the Company’s market capitalization (as determined under MI 61-101).
About Camino
Camino is a discovery and development stage copper exploration company. Camino is focused on advancing its high-grade Los Chapitos copper project located in Peru through to resource delineation and to add new discoveries. Camino has also permitted the Maria Cecilia copper porphyry project for a planned exploration drilling program. In addition, Camino has increased its land position at its copper and silver Plata Dorada project. Camino seeks to acquire a portfolio of advanced copper assets that have the potential to deliver copper into an electrifying copper intensive global economy. For more information, please refer to Camino’s website at www.caminocorp.com.
Jose A. Bassan, FAusIMM (CP) 227922, MSc. Geologist, an independent geologist and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this document. Mr. Bassan has reviewed and verified relevant data supporting the technical disclosure, including sampling and analytical test data.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD | For further information, please contact: |
/S/ “Jay Chmelauskas” | Camino Investor Relations |
President and CEO | info@caminocorp.com |
Tel: (604) 493-2058 |
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements: Certain disclosures in this release constitute forward-looking information. In making the forward-looking disclosures in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company’s current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information in the release includes the prospectivity of future exploration work at Maria Cecilia and the receipt of necessary authorizations and approvals. Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking information in this release is subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking information. Such risk factors include, among others, that actual results of the Company’s exploration activities may be different than those expected by management, that the Company may be unable to obtain or will experience delays in obtaining any required authorizations and approvals and the state of equity and commodity markets. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.