Andina Copper Corp. has intersected wide copper-gold-silver mineralization at its Piuquenes East project that significantly expands the vertical extent of the mineralized envelope and confirms increasing gold grades and intensity of porphyry stockwork veining laterally and to depth. Drill hole PIU09, only the third drilled at Piuquenes East, intersected a broad, continuous interval of copper-gold mineralization hosted within strongly veined, dioritic porphyry with intense sericitic alteration overprinting potassic, confirming the presence of a new vertically extensive gold-rich porphyry Cu-Au-Ag system within the Piuquenes-Altar cluster.
The results include 126 meters at 0.46% copper, 0.53 grams per tonne gold, and 2.14 grams per tonne silver from 529 meters depth, within a broader interval of 402 meters at 0.25% copper, 0.21 grams per tonne gold, and 1.19 grams per tonne silver from 253 meters. Higher gold grades and increasing intensity of A and B-type veining were observed at depth, consistent with proximity to the porphyry core. Bornite-rich potassic alteration with higher gold grades may be preserved beneath the sericitic overprint, suggesting potential for a potassic gold-rich core at deeper levels.
Follow-up drilling is underway to evaluate the northern continuity of the Cu-Au mineralized porphyry system at Piuquenes East. Hole PIU11 is designed to test the northern continuity and evaluate the lateral and vertical extent of the mineralized corridor identified to date. The hole has been positioned to intersect a geophysical chargeability anomaly defined by Induced Polarization surveying and a coincident conductive feature identified in Magnetotelluric data. The spatial relationship between these geophysical features and the mineralized dioritic porphyry intersected in PIU06 and PIU09 represents a priority target within the evolving geological model at Piuquenes East.
A second drill rig has commenced testing a strong, coherent, deep-seated, low-resistivity anomaly at Piuquenes North identified by the recently completed MT geophysical Survey. The anomaly is characterized by its low-resistivity contrast, significant vertical extent commencing approximately 600 meters below surface and extending well below the limits of current drilling beneath the known mineralized centres at Piuquenes East and Piuquenes Central. In the context of Miocene-aged porphyry systems of the southern Andes, conductive features of this scale and depth are commonly associated with deep intrusive activity or magmatic-hydrothermal sources, rather than shallow alteration effects.
Integration of the MT data with existing Induced Polarization datasets, drilling results, alteration mapping and structural interpretation has improved understanding of the spatial relationship between deeper conductive features and overlying porphyry-style mineralization. This relationship suggests that the currently defined Piuquenes East and Central mineralization may represent upper-level expressions related to a deeper source at Piuquenes North. The MT anomaly will be tested by the PIU12 drill hole and PN02, designed to test this feature and its interpreted relationship to known mineralization.
The Company's Corporate Presentation is available at: https://andinacopper.com/investors/presentations/. For business and technology leaders monitoring mineral exploration, these developments indicate significant potential for resource expansion in a region known for world-class copper deposits. The increasing gold grades at depth and the discovery of a deep geophysical anomaly suggest the Piuquenes project may represent a more substantial mineralized system than previously understood, with implications for copper supply chains and strategic mineral development in South America's premier copper-producing belt.
