Projects

Introduction

Mineral Mountain is a “drill ready” Laramide age, porphyry copper exploration project located in the Mineral Mountain Mining District 16 miles east of Florence, Arizona. 

The project occurs within a northeast trending, regional scale, porphyry copper belt that extends from the Ajo porphyry copper district in the west to the Miami-Globe porplyry copper district in the east and hosts some of the largest porphyry copper deposits in Arizona, including the Santa Cruz and Resolution porphyry copper deposits. The Mineral Mountain project is located between the Florence and Resolution deposits.

Porphyry copper deposits in Arizona are located along well-defined northeast and northwest trending mineral belts.  Ninety-six percent of porphyry deposits located within the Laramide age copper province were emplaced between 45 and 80 Ma ago. Arizona is a Tier 1 mining friendly, politically secure jurisdiction with excellent and readily accessible infrastructure.

Property Description

Copper Fox, through its subsidiary Desert Fox Mineral Mountain Co., owns 100% interest in the Mineral Mountain project.  The Project consists of two Arizona Mineral Exploration Permits and 260 BLM mining claims covering approximately 2,633.8 ha (6,508.2 acres).

2023 Exploration

The 2023 exploration program consisted of a project wide, deep penetrating geophysical survey (employing Quantec’s ORION 3D Swath DCIP configuration) and detailed mapping of the geophysical lines to collect data on lithology, alteration, and mineralization to better interpret the chargeability/resistivity signatures.  The objective of the 2023 program was to map the depth extent of the chargeability/resistivity signature associated with the porphyry footprint and estimate, if possible, the depth of the oxidization/supergene zone. 

Geological Model

The porphyry copper deposits in the Safford Mining District of Arizona are being used as geological/exploration models for the project. The large copper footprint at Mineral Mountain is interpreted to represent the oxidized surface expression of a buried, gold enriched, porphyry copper-molybdenum system similar to other porphyry copper systems in Arizona. The present topographic surface is interpreted to represent the sericite-chlorite alteration zone located above the potassic zone of the interpreted buried porphyry copper system.

2023 Geophysical Survey

Recent investigation of the geophysical characteristics of porphyry copper systems in Arizona shows that the oxidation/supergene processes that affected these porphyry copper systems have altered the petrophysical properties of the mineralization and host rock resulting in lower chargeability and increased resistivity signatures within the oxidation/supergene zone of porphyry copper deposits. Source: B. Howe, Sara G.R. Devriese, March 2023; An Empirical Geophysical Model for Porphyry Copper Deposits in the Laramide Copper Province.

The objective of the program was to define the limits of the open-ended geophysical signature outlined in the 2021 geophysical survey and map the geophysical signature at depth of the copper “footprint” identified by previous mapping programs.

The geophysical survey identified two distinct geophysical signatures:

• a near surface 1,200 m long by 900 m wide, low chargeability/higher resistivity anomaly like the chargeablility/resistivity response at other weathered/oxidized porphyry deposits in Arizona.  This anomaly signature exhibits a strong spatial association to abundant quartz vein/veinlet/fracture hosted secondary copper (chrysocolla, malachite, chalcocite) and molybdenum mineralization in dominantly sericitic and to a lesser extent potassic altered porphyritic quartz monzonite and granodiorite.
• at a depth of approximately 250 m (possibly the depth of oxidization) the near surface chargeability/resistivity signature merges into a larger northeast trending open-ended positive (>18 mrad) chargeability/resistivity anomaly measuring approximately 3,200 m long by 1,200 m wide.

The recently acquired BLM mining claims cover the interpreted northeast extension of the chargeability/resistivity anomaly and four Laramide age quartz monzonite plugs, the largest of which hosts extensively oxidized/leached porphyry style quartz veins, quartz veinlets and fractures containing secondary copper minerals (chrysocolla, malachite, chalcocite) as well as several Tertiary age porphyritic granodiorite dikes.

Porphyry Copper Footprint

The northeast trending porphyry footprint is located on the eastern side of the Mineral Mountain Laramide age intrusive along the PreCambrian/Laramide intrusive contact. The porphyry copper footprint is interpreted to dip to the east and to the north under the PreCambrian rocks consistent with the location of the recently defined chargeability signature.

The porphyry footprint measures approximately 3,500 m long by 1,000 m wide characterized by a copper-magnetite (now hematite) association with enhanced gold-molybdenum concentration hosted in phyllic (sericite) and potassic porphyritic granodiorite and quartz monzonite. Modelling outlined overlapping, northeast trending zones measuring approximately 3,000 m by 700 m of greater than 1,000 parts per million (‘ppm’) copper within which occurs a 2,800 m by 600 m zone greater than 30 ppm molybdenum.

Over 800 showings of secondary copper mineralization (specifically chrysocolla, malachite, chalcocite +/- covellite +/- chalcopyrite) have been located within the porphyry footprint. 

The abundance of chalcocite and occasional occurrence of chalcopyrite and covellite suggests the present topographic surface at Mineral Mountain could represent the lower portion of the ‘oxidization/supergene’ zone consistent with the current geophysical interpretation.

The secondary copper mineralization is hosted in multiple settings consisting of four mineralogical distinct, northeast trending types of quartz veinlets, in hematite veins, filling fractures and as disseminations associated with mafic mineral sites within the Laramide intrusive. Quartz-molybdenite veins have been observed. Abundant hematite (after magnetite) filled fractures and hematite veins occur throughout the copper footprint. 

Historical Exploration

Exploration completed prior to 2023 include mapping, prospecting, sampling, ground and airborne geophysical surveys, petrographic and age dating studies.

Mapping and Sampling

The mapping programs located over 800 showings of secondary copper mineralization within the copper footprint. Select sampling of the copper showings yielded the following analytical results:

Cu = copper, Mo = molybdenum, Au = gold, Ag =silver, (%) = percent, ppm = parts per million, ppb = parts per billion. Cu values may be enhanced due to the leaching and supergene processes that has occurred on the property.

Airborne Geophysical Survey

Modelling of the 2022 magnetic data shows the majority of the Mineral Mountain intrusive to be essentially non-magnetic and could represent the exposed portion of the “parental” intrusive.  The survey also identified several late-stage intrusive plugs exhibiting a positive magnetic signature connected to a large positive northeast trending magnetic body at depth, possibly a cupola within the parental intrusive. The northeast trending “cupola” show a strong spatial association to the copper footprint and chargeability signature.