Lion Copper and Gold Corp., and its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Singatse Peak Services, LLC, are focused on the development of their Yerington Copper Project.
On March 18, 2022, the Lion Copper and Gold entered into an Option to Earn-in Agreement with Rio Tinto to advance studies and exploration at Yerington. Under the agreement, Rio Tinto has the exclusive option to earn a 65% interest.
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Summary:
The Yerington deposit represents a porphyry copper deposit hosted in porphyry dikes that formed in stocks of the upper Yerington batholith. The Yerington porphyry system has been tilted westerly so that the plan view of the deposit is a cross-sectional exposure.
Mining at the Yerington deposit has revealed an alteration geometry displaying the original pyrite-rich cap (present-day leached sericite-limonite on the west end of the Yerington pit) grading downward easterly to quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration and to potassic alteration in the central portion of the pit and then continuing to a soda-flooded root zone at the eastern end.
The MacArthur deposit is a supergene enriched, oxidized porphyry copper system. Within the MacArthur deposit, phyllic alteration from the upper portion of the porphyry system dominates to the west. The alteration grades to potassic in the central MacArthur pit area and pervasive sodic-calcic alteration dominates in the eastern portions of the MacArthur pit and in the far eastern portion of the property.
Yerington Copper Deposit
The general geometry of copper mineralization below the Yerington pit is an elongate body extending 6,600 ft along a strike of S62ºE. The modeled mineralization has an average width of 2,000 ft and has been defined by drilling to an average depth of 400-500 ft below the pit bottom at the 3,500-foot elevation.
The copper mineralization and alteration throughout the Yeringtan district and at the Yerington deposit are unusual for porphyry copper camps in that the mineralization is "stripey", occurring in WNW striking bands or stripes between materials of lesser grade. Clearly, much of this geometry is influenced by the strong, district-wide WNW structural grain observed in foult, fracture and, especially, porphyry dike orientations. Porphyry dikes are associated with all copper occurrences in the district. Altered, mineralized bands range in width from tens of ft to 200-foot-wide mineralized porphyry dikes mined in the Yerington pit by Anaconda.
Greenish, greenish blue chrysocolla (CuS 03.2H2O) was the dominant copper oxide mineral, occurring as fracture coatings and fillings, easily amenable to an acid leach solution. Historic Anaconda drill logs note lesser neotocite, aka black copper wad (Cu, Fe, Mn)SiO2 and rare tenorite (CuO) and cuprite (Cu20). Oxide copper also occurs in iron oxide/limonite fracture coatings and selvages.
Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) was the dominant copper sulfide mineral occurring with minor bornite (Cu5FeS4) primarily hosted in A-type quartz veins in the older porphyry dikes and in quartz monzonite and granodiorite, as well as disseminated between veins in host rock at lesser grade. The unmined mineralized material below the current pit bottom consists primarily of chalcopyrite.
Surfaces were interpreted for alluvium (code 20), oxide (code 30) mineralization and sulfide (code 40) mineralization from the drill logs and soluble copper assays.
MacArthur Copper Deposit
The MacArthur deposit is a large copper mineralized system containing near-surface acid soluble copper mineralization (IMC, 2022).
The MacArthur deposit consists of a 50 to 150-ft thick, tabular zone of secondary copper (oxides and/or chalcocite) covering an area of approximately two square miles. Limited drilling has also intersected underlying primary copper mineralization open to the north, but only partially tested to the west and east.
Oxide copper mineralization is most abundant and particularly well exposed in the walls of the legacy MacArthur pit. The most common copper mineral is chrysocolla (CuSiO32H2O). Also present is black copper wad, neotocite, ((Cu,Fe,Mn)SiO2)) and trace cuprite (Cu2O) and tenorite. (CuO) The flat-lying zones of oxide copper mirror topography, exhibit strong fracture control and range in thickness from 50 to 100 ft. Secondary chalcocite mineralization forms a blanket up to 50 ft or more in thickness that is mixed with and underlies the oxide copper. Primary chalcopyrite mineralization has been intersected in several locations mixed with and below the chalcocite. The extent of the primary copper is unknown as many of the holes bottomed at 400 ft or less.