The property has two distinct mineralized zones: Lagunillas and West Wall Norte. The mineralization zones are part of an extensive north-northeast striking hydrothermal alteration zone of approximately 9km by 4km. The royalty purchased by Nova covers both zones, which comprise the existing resource on West Wall.
Back in October 2010, Anglo American reported a maiden inferred resource at West Wall, focused exclusively on the Lagunillas zone. The stated inferred resource at that time was 750Mt at 0.54% Cu, 0.05 g/t Au and 0.01% Mo.
Since then, Anglo and Glencore have completed various exploration activities, which have resulted in the identification of a new mineralized zone, West Wall Norte, and a significant increase in total mineral resources.
The West Wall project is located in the same geological belt as some of South America’s largest copper deposits, including Andina, Los Bronces, Los Pelambres, El Pachon and El Teniente. The Vizcachitas copper-molybdenum development project, on which Nova has an existing 0.98% royalty and is owned by Los Andes Copper (TSXV: LA), is approximately 20km away from West Wall.
“West Wall is one of the world’s premier greenfield copper projects. Together with the 0.98% NSR that we already own on the neighboring Vizcachitas project, through this transaction, Nova now owns royalties on two of the largest and most advanced development projects in one of Chile’s most strategic copper producing regions,” Alex Tsukernik, Nova’s president and CEO, commented in a news release.
Shares of Nova Royalty advanced 6.9% by noon ET Toronto time. The company, mainly focused on acquiring royalties on copper and nickel deposits, has a market capitalization of approximately C$244.3 million.
