Golden Rim Resources Ltd (ASX: GMR, Golden Rim or Company) is pleased to advise it has executed an Option and Joint Venture Agreement with Teck Resources Chile Limitada (Teck Chile), a subsidiary of Teck Resources Limited (Teck), on its 100%-owned Loreto Copper Project (Loreto). Loreto comprises mineral concessions that have been separated from the Company's Paguanta Silver-Lead-Zinc-Copper Project (Paguanta) in northern Chile
Highlights
Teck Chile has been granted options to earn up to a 75% interest in Loreto by making US$0.6m in staged cash payments (~A$0.8m) to Golden Rim and spending US$17m on exploration (~A$23m).
Loreto lies at the northern extension of Chile's West Fissure - the world's largest concentration of major porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits.
Golden Rim's exploration has identified a highly prospective 2.3km x 1km alteration centre at Loreto which has the potential to host a deeper porphyry copper deposit.
Mineral concessions that cover the Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.4Mt at 88g/t silver, 5.0% zinc and 1.4% lead for 6.8Moz silver, 265Mlb zinc and 74Mlb lead1 at Paguanta are not included in the agreement with Teck Chile; Golden Rim is pursuing an alternative transaction on the Paguanta mineral concessions.
Golden Rim's Managing Director, Craig Mackay, said, 'Golden Rim believes that Loreto could well represent the last unexplored outcropping Oligocene-Eocene porphyry system in northern Chile. Not surprisingly, Loreto is surrounded by BHP and Codelco, two of the largest copper companies in the world. 'Golden Rim is very pleased to execute this agreement with Teck, one of Canada's leading mining companies, to explore Loreto. Teck has two major copper operations in Chile, including the Quebrada Blanca Mine, located 120km south of Loreto along the West Fissure. 'The Option and Joint Venture Agreement allows Golden Rim to leverage off Teck's significant porphyry copper exploration and development experience. With the ability to retain an interest in Loreto, Golden Rim gets to share in the upside should Teck make a significant copper discovery. The agreement also allows us to deliver value from the project while focusing on growing our gold inventory at the Kada Gold Project in Guinea.'
Highly Prospective Porphyry Copper Setting
Loreto lies in northern Chile, in the northern extension of the West Fissure, which hosts the world's largest known concentration of major porphyry copper and molybdenum deposits (Figure 2). The project is 30km north-east of BHP's Cerro Colorado Mine (Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources: 519Mt at 0.55% copper2 ) and 130km north of Collahuasi (Anglo American and Glencore; Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources: 2,340Mt at 0.66% copper3 ) and Quebrada Blanca (Teck/Sumitomo/ENAMI; Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves: 1.43Bt at 0.51% copper, 0.021% molybdenum and 1.36 g/t silver in addition to Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 3.59Bt at 0.37% copper, 0.016% molybdenum and 1.11 g/t silver, and Inferred Mineral Resources of 3.11Bt at 0.35% copper, 0.017% molybdenum and 1.12 g/t silver 4 ) (Figure 2). The Loreto mineral concessions are 100% owned by Golden Rim and extend over an area of 16.0km2 (Figure 1). These concessions cover the Loreto porphyry copper target and prior to the agreement with Teck Chile, they formed part of the Paguanta Project. The remainder of Paguanta mineral concessions extend over 39.2km2 and comprise the Paguanta Joint Venture between Golden Rim (75% interest) and Chilean company, Costa Rica Dos (25% interest). The Paguanta Joint Venture mineral concessions cover the Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.4Mt at 88g/t silver, 5.0% zinc and 1.4% lead for 6.8Moz silver, 265Mlb zinc and 74Mlb lead5 at the Patricia Prospect, along with the Cumbre silver-lead-zinc prospect (possible southern extension to the Mineral Resource), and Patricia East, Rosa and Doris porphyry copper prospects (Figure 1).
Loreto Porphyry Copper Target Attributes
Loreto shows encouraging evidence of a sizeable and fertile porphyry system, in an area that has been under-explored because of limited access and its distance from the silver-lead-zinc vein system at Patricia, the focus for all previous exploration and historical mining at Paguanta to date.
Loreto's porphyry attributes are summarised below:
3.5km x 3.5km lithocap (colour anomaly) composed of clay - pyrite +/- sericite, surrounded by propylitic halo (chlorite - epidote - magnetite - pyrite) affecting the volcanic rocks from the Empexa Formation and granodiorite from the Alantaya Batholith. This is interpreted as the alteration footprint of a porphyry system (Figures 1 & 3).
Remnants of copper oxide veins at surface and encouraging molybdenum results in rock chip samples (as molybdenum is a geochemically immobile element, it is an excellent porphyry pathfinder), highlighting a 2.3km x 1km porphyry centre within the lithocap (Figure 4).
Igneous Breccia outcrops, with a clay - silica - pyrite and dacitic matrix surrounding dacitic to dioritic porphyry clasts showing potassic alteration (biotite - pyrite - chalcopyrite), suggesting a potassic altered core at depth (porphyry copper target).
Multiphase porphyry dykes, grading in composition from diorite to dacite. These dykes show silica - clay - sericite and chlorite - epidote - magnetite alteration, plus pyrite +/- chalcopyrite. Multievent intrusions are common in porphyry systems and play a key role in hydrothermal fluid exsolution and transport.
Porphyry dyke has been dated, confirming Late Oligocene - Early Eocene age; U-Pb zircon in dacitic biotite porphyry indicating 35.3 +/- 0.3 Ma. This is the same age as Anglo American/Glencore's Collahuasi copper deposits.
Hyperspectral analysis (Terra Spec) indicating muscovite and pyrophyllite in surface rock samples, suggesting a paleo-isotherm around 300-degreeC, and potentially close to prospective classic phyllic - potassic porphyry alteration assemblages. This alteration is seen outcropping 10km to the east of Loreto at Queen Elizabeth (Anglo American).
Whilst exploration at the Loreto porphyry target has been limited, the region has been on the radar of the major companies which tightly hold the area surrounding Paguanta, including BHP, Anglo American, Glencore, Vale and Freeport. Not surprisingly, Paguanta's mineral concessions, particularly the Loreto target, have been over-staked by the majors.
To mitigate this, Golden Rim has converted these mineral concessions to exploitation concessions. Based on the field observations, Golden Rim believes that Loreto corresponds spatially to the upper portion of a porphyry system and that it corresponds in time to the most productive copper mineralising age in northern Chile (late Oligocene - early Eocene). Moreover, Loreto shows good evidence to suggest a telescoped system (hydrothermal alteration overprinting), meaning that economic mineralisation might be in a range of hundreds of metres below surface, within the zone of phyllic and potassic porphyry alteration. Evidence for this deeper alterationincludes the clasts with potassic altered porphyries plus sulphides from the igneous breccia and the pyrophyllite hyperspectral finding. Remnant copper oxides at surface, chalcopyrite in the igneous breccia clasts and traces of chalcopyrite in late multiphase porphyry dykes show evidence of copper fertility at Loreto.
Contact:
Golden Rim Resources Ltd
ABN 39 006 710 774
Craig Mackay
Managing Director
T: +61 3 8677 0829
E: craig@goldenrim.com.au
This announcement was authorised for release by the Board of Golden Rim Resources Ltd.
Competent Persons Statements
The information in this report relating to previous exploration results and Mineral Resources are extracted from the announcements: Sampling Grows Golden Rim's Loreto Porphyry Copper Target by 100% dated 8 June 2021; Golden Rim to Explore Major Porphyry Copper Target in Chile dated 22 April 2021; New Resource Estimation for Paguanta dated 30 May 2017; Paguanta Zinc-Silver-Lead Project Update dated 20 January 2017; Golden Rim to Acquire Advanced Silver-Lead-Zinc-Copper Project in Chile dated 10 May 2016. These reports are available on the Company's website (www.goldenrim.com.au). The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in these announcements and, in the case of the Mineral Resource estimate, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed. These reports are available on the Company's website (www.goldenrim.com.au). The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in these announcements and, in the case of the Mineral Resource estimate, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed. The information in this report that relates to exploration results is based on information compiled by Craig Mackay, a Competent Person, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Mackay is a full-time employee of the Company and has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Mr Mackay consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this document are or maybe 'forward-looking statements' and represent Golden Rim's intentions, projections, expectations or beliefs concerning among other things, future exploration activities. The projections, estimates and beliefs contained in such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Golden Rim, and which may cause Golden Rim's actual performance in future periods to differ materially from any express or implied estimates or projections. Nothing in this document is a promise or representation as to the future. Statements or assumptions in this document as to future matters may prove to be incorrect and differences may be material. Golden Rim does not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy of such statements or assumptions.
ASARA RESOURCES LIMITED 
