Block 4, and
Redondo-Veronica projects all lie along the mid-Tertiary porphyry copper belt of northern Chile and the related Domeyko Cordillera fault system. The projects are located along a 400 km long segment of the belt, which includes the Chuquicamata (Codelco), Centinela (Antofagasta Minerals, Marubeni, and partners), La Escondida (BHP, Rio Tinto, and partners) and El Salvador (Codelco) porphyry Cu-Mo-Au deposits. The Domeyko Cordillera copper mines are responsible for producing more than 15% of world copper production, and around 60% of Chilean copper production, and include the world's largest single copper mine at La Escondida.
All five of these projects are characterized by extensive post-mineral gravel and caliche-covered basins, typically called "pampas", which obscure the underlying geology. Mapping of the geology of peripheral outcrops and structural corridors together with geophysical surveying, followed by drill testing, are the main tools available for exploration of concealed porphyry copper systems. The projects all lie directly along north-south blocks of thick-skinned tectonically inverted Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks, where early to mid-Tertiary pre-mineral intrusions and porphyry-type hydrothermal alteration zones have been recognized. Two projects, Arrieros and Block 3, have exploration magnetics data coverage that reveals a series of geophysical anomalies possibly related to buried porphyry copper systems. Although historic drilling has been carried out on some of the projects by third parties, large areas with indicative data and potential to conceal porphyry deposits remain untested. Induced Polarization ("IP") coverage is pending in all projects.