In an interview with the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers, organizer of the most important international congress of prospectors and explorers in Latin America, César Farfán Bernales, corporate manager of Volcan Compañía Minera, gives details of the mining company's participation as sponsor of proEXPLO, the brownfield and greenfield development plans, and the expectation for the geological potential of Peru.

1. How important is proEXPLO for the mining sector?

proEXPLO is the most important event for Peruvian mining exploration. As we know, the mining sector is one of the main drivers of the country's development, with mineral exploration being the fundamental basis of this industry.

In addition, proEXPLO allows the participation and interaction between the private and public sectors, creating an important space of understanding for the future development of our mining activities.

2. How does proEXPLO align with Volcan's objectives?

Undoubtedly, one of the greatest contributions of proEXPLO to the mining industry will be innovation. Many of the mining industry's processes have evolved positively in terms of technology, hand in hand with innovation, making mining today more dynamic, safer, cleaner and more responsible for the development of communities. This mining exploration event will showcase new projects, advances and improvements in the mining industry.

In this sense, Volcan has been developing important exploration programs in its operating mines, as well as in brownfield and greenfield projects, being proEXPLO a space to focus on the search for new initiatives that could be of interest to the company.

3. What will be the company's participation in proEXPLO?

As in previous editions, Volcan will actively participate in proEXPLO as a sponsor of the event. We will have Volcan promotional videos in areas arranged by the organizing committee, we will be in the keynote speeches, and our professionals will participate in the event.

We will also be presenting in the core shack room the latest findings in mineralized zones discovered during our explorations, in order to show and exchange ideas with professionals involved in geology and mining to enrich the professional level of the event.

We will show the latest mineral exploration trends being used at Volcan to search for new mineral deposits.

4. What is your opinion on Peru's geological potential?

Peru's geology is an open book. Peru was, is and will be a mining country par excellence. We are a country with a wide variety of mining deposits, with an important range of metals available for production; we are a country that has mining presence practically throughout the whole territory and with an enormous geological potential.

Peru ranks first in world reserves of silver, third in world reserves of copper and zinc, and seventh in world reserves of gold, ahead of countries such as Russia, Canada and Australia, according to the world ranking of metal reserves, published by Gerens in November 2019 and updated in October 2020. However, we still have a long way to go.

5. Why encourage the development of geological potential?

The Peruvian territory has been little explored, despite its great geological-mining potential. Our mining reserves could grow enormously and discover new metals that will sustain the mining of the future, but we must move forward in leaps and bounds.

Likewise, the geological and mining potential is not alien to the country's development; however, I believe that its development still needs to be optimized, focused on environmental care and support for the sustainable growth of rural communities. Although the responsible mining industry is currently doing so, the State has yet to establish clear and transparent rules for this important development.

6. What resources and reserves does Volcan currently have?

Volcan has 101 million tons of mineral resources including measured, indicated and inferred resources, and 23 million tons of reserves, allowing it to ensure many years of mineral extraction, without considering exploration projects, i.e., only those immersed in its operating mines.

Including the exploration projects we have at different stages, Volcan's total resources amount to 447 million tons.

Volcan is one of the main producers of zinc, lead and silver at a national and global level with 79 years of history and we will continue making history for many years to come, in a responsible manner with our social and environmental surroundings.

7. What is Volcan's most outstanding brownfield project?

During 2022, Volcan made a huge effort in brownfield and greenfield exploration.

For brownfield exploration, Volcan focused on the Esperanza body, located in the vicinity of its Animon mine, discovering ore from a large replacement body, which has about 30 million tons of inferred ore with high grades of zinc and copper, and with about 10 million tons of potential still open, located 700 meters below the current Animon operations, which means a promising future for that mine.

8. What new developments are you presenting in greenfield exploration?

For greenfield, Volcan conducted geological mapping activities to highlight the most relevant geological evidence:

• Airborne geophysics with state-of-the-art technology such as VTEM (Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic) and ZTEM (Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic) and using helicopters to cover large areas.
• Terrestrial geophysics using drones with gravimetry, magnetometry and induced polarization (IP) methods.

This has allowed us to define more than a hundred anomalous zones that will be evaluated in the coming years, and we are very motivated and expectant.

9. How much will be invested in exploration this year?

In quantitative terms, in 2022, we have executed more than 49 thousand meters of diamond drilling in explorations with an approximate investment of US$30 million. It should be noted that these figures do not include exploration at our current operating units.

By 2023, we will maintain the Esperanza project, as well as the brownfield explorations at Yauli, while reviewing the greenfield anomalous zones, with a program of 40 thousand meters of diamond drilling with an investment of around US$17 million.

proEXPLO 2023: Descubriendo la Minería del Futuro