Solis Minerals (ASX:SLM) will commence drilling at its Ilo Este Project in Peru later this month, having secured all necessary approvals. The drilling program will consist of 10 holes, totalling 5,000 metres of diamond drilling. Solis Minerals is an emerging mineral explorer focused on unlocking the potential of its South American project portfolio. The company’s assets are primarily considered prospective for copper.
The program is designed to support Solis Minerals’ objective of identifying copper-gold resources in southern Peru, with the potential to host large-scale mining operations. The company’s exploration drill targets are located near southern Peru’s coastal belt and exhibit promising surface mineralisation. These targets also benefit from crucial infrastructure that will be essential for any future mining activities. Solis has a market capitalisation of $11.42 million.
According to CEO Mitch Thomas, the commencement of drilling marks an exciting phase of exploration for Solis. He stated that the extensive surface geochemistry, strong geophysical targets, and encouraging historical drilling results, which have revealed geologically significant copper-gold findings at Ilo Este, combine to create a particularly attractive project. Exploration to date has defined a mineralised system across a 3km² area, featuring strong potassic alteration and visible copper oxides, such as malachite, recorded at the surface.
A 2023 geophysics induced polarisation survey outlined a previously undrilled 1,250m long high-chargeability anomaly at depths ranging from 100 to 500m below the surface. Solis Minerals believes that this suggests the presence of a sizable sulphide system. The Ilo Este Project is considered to be a large copper porphyry system with coincident gold, silver, and molybdenum.
