On Sept. 03, 2024, Cerro de Pasco Resources Inc. announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement with FIC03 Fondo de Inversión Privado (“FIC03”), a Peruvian investment company controlled by Finanzas e Inversiones Corporativas (“FIC”). FIC specializes in managing alternative and distressed investments across various industries. Under the Agreement, the Company has agreed to sell its Santander Mine in Peru to FIC03.
Pursuant to the Agreement which is effective as of August 29, 2024, CDPR has sold the shares of its Peruvian subsidiary Cerro de Pasco Resources Subsidiaria del Peru S.A.C., that holds the interest in the Santander mine.
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Summary:
The Santander Pipe mine is located within what is referred to as the Miocene metallogenic belt of central and northern Perú. It extends for at least 900 km along the Andean Western Cordillera and adjacent Altiplano and is characterized by numerous hydrothermal mineral deposits that formed about 20 Ma ago. Mineralization is interpreted to have occurred during a pre-lower.
Miocene Quechua I compressive event and spanned later Quechua II tectonism. Mineral deposits are predominantly hosted by shelf carbonates and other sedimentary rocks of Late Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous age, and by volcanic and intrusive rocks mainly of Neogene age. Base metal and precious metal mineralization were intimately associated in time and space with the eruption of calc-alkali volcanic rocks of intermediate composition, and the emplacement of mineralogically and geochemically similar, dykes and stocks.
The property is underlain by a package of Cretaceous carbonate and clastic sedimentary rocks that were tightly folded into a series of northwest-trending anticlines and synclines. The lower, predominantly clastic part of the section was thrust over the mainly carbonate-rich upper portion (the favourable host rocks) along a regional, north to northwest-trending thrust fault, the Santander regional fault which is approximately parallel to the fold axes with a strike of 150º west, and dips moderately to the west. Based on regional stratigraphic reconstruction, it has an estimated minimum displacement of at least 1,000 metres, and clearly has a control over the mineralization of the adjacent Magistral mine deposits.
In the Santander Pipe mine, skarn alteration and associated sulphide mineralization were mined to a vertical depth of 480 metres below surface, with historical boreholes indicating mineralization continues to at least another 250 m depth. In detail, skarn mineralization forms a circular, massive, plug-like body in the massive-bedded Jumasha limestone formation to depths of approximately 250 m below surface prior to forming more discrete skarn hosted replacements in the underlying interbedded Chulec limestone formation to 730 m vertical depth. Exploration during 2022 has indicated that this mineralization continues at least 600 m northwards around a steep anticlinal fold and in alignment with the Puajanca deposit 1.5 km further north.
The characteristics and setting of the mineralization at the Santander Property are consistent with intrusion related, carbonate-hosted zinc-lead (copper, silver) deposits (Megaw, Balton and Falce 1996; Megaw 1998; Meinert, Dippert, and Nicolescu 2005), also known as carbon replacement deposits (CRDs) or hightemperature carbonate (HTC) deposit types. Such deposits form a continuum between relatively lower-temperature replacement types as seen in the Magistral deposits, to higher-temperature skarn-hosted types as seen in the Santander Pipe deposit.
Mining ceased at 480 m depth in mineralization, due to adverse metal prices and underlying hyperinflation. The last drill program indicates that mineralization (Zn-(Cu-Pb-Ag)) continues at least 400 m further below the lowest working and at depth, the Qtz-Moly mineralization reaches 700 m further and is still open at depth. The geometry of the Santander Pipe is modelled as manto replacement in favourable rocks of the Chulec Formation in depth and as a vertical pipe-like geometry in the shallower parts where it cuts through the Jumasha limestones using the axial plane of a north-south trending regional anticline. In the upper cylindrical part of the Santander Pipe, mineralization is seen as massive sulphides concentrated along the borders of a massive garnet-pyroxene skarn core, forming an annular outer layer of sulphide-rich material with a diameter between 6 and 20 m. Below this ring zone, the ore minerals appear as sulphiderich manto-like bodies, alternating with the occurrence of skarn-rich levels (Photo 7-1). Their strike and dip coincide with the surrounding Cretaceous sediments where they reach a thickness between 5 and 25 m. The contact between the limestones and the skarn body is extremely sharp and it is usually characterized by a 4 to 8 mm chlorite-rich part which is followed by a zone of diopside (some 1 - 3 cm, but not always clearly developed) and then by a zone which contains garnets (Zimmernink, 1985).
The gangue minerals consist mainly of garnets (andradite and grossular), calcite, quartz, diopside, epidote, chlorite, vesuvianite, orthoclase, clinozoisite, and zoisite (Zimmernink, 1985). Ore minerals include mainly Fe-rich sphalerite, with variable amounts of chalcopyrite, argentiferous galena, pyrrhotite, pyrite, and minor amounts of mackinawite, marcasite, bornite, hessite, and various bismuth tellurides (Zimmernink, 1985). Complex textures of dissolution and replacement suggest a complex evolution of the mineralizing fluids where different stages of alteration and mineralization were superimposed on a single-hand specimen (Zimmernink, 1985). Of special interest is the great variety of up to 5 different garnet types described by Zimmernick (1985) in terms of optical characteristics. The distribution of both gangue and ore minerals within the vertical profile of the Santander Pipe indicates mineralogical zoning. For example, a change in composition of garnets from andraditic to grossularitic towards depth was observed by Zimmernink (1985), who also points out that vesuvianite, orthoclase, and clinozoisite are found in minor amounts only in the lower parts of the mine.
The mineralization drilled below the bottom of the mine shows further changes, with thinner skarn horizons and shallower dips with distance from the deposit axis, and a tendency to indicate that the skarn horizons may be spreading beyond the pipe confines and into horizons relating to a possible larger skarn front.