During his participation in Road to proEXPLO (Rumbo a proEXPLO) seminar, Mervin Tapia, Brownfield Exploration Manager at Nexa Resources, presented the details of the "Integración" project developed in the Pasco Complex, formed by the Atacocha and El Porvenir mines.

This important project is in an early exploration stage, which has been underway for 3 years and is estimated to have an initial potential of over 10 million tons of mineral resources.

For this year, Nexa is considering the execution of a 6,000 meter drilling program at the El Porvenir unit. The "Integración" project is expected to expand the exploration program to resource-level drilling by 2025, which will first require the construction of adequate infrastructure, mainly tunnels.

Skarn deposits

In this Road to proEXPLO 2023 seminar, the Skarn, CRD and Cordilleran deposits in Peru were analyzed, being the Atacocha and El Porvenir units, which are 87 and 73 years old, respectively, and managed by Nexa, clear examples of Skarn deposits.

Skarn-type deposits refer to a metamorphosed rock or zone characterized by containing minerals in a carbonate rock.

"Both mines are still in production today. This reflects the quality of the assets performed on several types of mineralization formed in the context of Oligocene porphyries intruded mainly in the Late Triassic carbonate rocks of the Chambará formation, part of the Pucará Group," said Tapia.

Focused on increasing the useful life of these two mines, especially Atacocha, Nexa is developing the "Integración" project, one of the largest exploration and identification projects in the Pasco Complex. This is a mineralized breccia body of hydromagmatic origin with garnet clasts and other materials that point to a deepening skarn.

"Despite 86 years of industrial-scale mining, the Pasco Complex continues to reveal new styles of mineralization, new exploration targets and, ultimately, new resources and reserves," said Tapia.

He concluded that all this reinforces the fertility of polymetallic mineralization in central Peru, where Oligocene and Miocene porphyry intrusions meet the extensive Peruvian carbonate platform formed between the Late Triassic and Lower Cretaceous.

Road to proEXPLO 2023

Road to proEXPLO is the webinar program that precedes the International Congress of Prospectors and Explorers (proEXPLO), one of the leading geological-mining events in Latin America and a must-attend meeting for companies and professionals working in exploration.

proEXPLO is organized by the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers and will be held in person from May 8 to 10, 2023, in the city of Lima, under the title "Discovering the mining of the future".

Register for proEXPLO by clicking on the following link: https://www.proexplo.com.pe/proexplo2023/front/public/es/categorias-ins

proEXPLO 2023: Descubriendo la Minería del Futuro