Emerita’s El Cura gold-copper hits raise resource potential

[Ben Graham]

Drilling by Emerita Resources (TSXV: EMO) at its El Cura deposit in southwest Spain shows its potential to add significant tonnage with high-grade gold and copper to the larger Iberian Belt West (IBW) project, the company said Wednesday.

Drill hole EC067 returned 16.9 metres grading 1.4% copper, 2.1% zinc, 1% lead, 0.93 gram gold per tonne and 42.6 grams silver, as well as 3.1 metres at 1.1% copper, 1.5% lead, 3.5% zinc, 1.46 grams gold and 59.7 grams silver. IBW is near the border with Portugal, about 144 km west of Seville.

“The ongoing success of the drill program at El Cura has led us to approve an additional 10,000 meters of drilling as the deposit remains open for expansion and continues to deliver intercepts of excellent thickness and grade,” Emerita President Joaquin Merino said in a release.

“We are particularly interested in the improved understanding of the structural controls of the mineralization which suggest that previous investigators walked away without fully exploring the down plunge potential at El Cura.”

Resource, status tailwinds

Those results come several months after Emerita released an updated resource for IBW that boosted indicated tonnage by 35% over the initial resource from 2023.

IBW, consisting of the El Cura, La Romanera and La Infanta deposits, sits on the Iberian Pyrite belt, known for its dozens of prolific volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits that have over centuries produced millions of tonnes of copper, zinc, silver and lead. And just over a year ago, the regional Andalusian government granted IBW strategic interest status which is expected to accelerate environmental reviews and economic initiatives.

Emerita shares gained 2.9% to C$1.05 apiece on Wednesday morning in Toronto, for a market capitalization of C$276 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of C$0.55 to C$2.00.

Strong grades

Other notable intersections at El Cura include EC062, which cut 7.2 metres grading 1% copper, 1.4% lead, 1.9% zinc, 1.31 grams gold and 60.1 grams silver, from 309.8 metres depth; and EC059B that returned 6.3 metres at 0.5% copper, 1.5% lead, 0.8% zinc, 1.45 grams gold and 66.9 grams silver from 382.5 metres depth.

IBW hosts 18.9 million indicated tonnes grading 2.8% zinc, 1.42% lead, 0.5% copper, 1.28 grams gold and 66 grams silver for 547,000 tonnes of contained zinc, 269,000 tonnes lead, 94,000 tonnes of copper, 783,000 oz. gold and 40.2 million oz. silver, according to this year’s update

Inferred resources total 6.8 million tonnes at 3.25% zinc, 1.5% lead, 0.73% copper, 0.77 gram gold and 56.3 grams silver for 221,000 tonnes zinc, 102,000 tonnes lead, 49,000 tonnes copper, 168,000 oz. gold and 12.3 million oz. silver.

Compared with other European polymetallic projects, IBW is mid-sized but boasts higher grade copper and gold compared to Boliden’s (STO: BOL) Zinkgruvan project in Sweden and is competitive on grade with that company’s Neves-Corvo site in Portugal.

Emerita has approved another 10,000 metres of diamond drilling at El Cura, which is to focus on converting inferred resources to indicated.