Resource World Magazine

44 www.resourceworld.com D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 H igh in the Andes Mountains, straddling the northern border between Argentina and Chile is the Filo Project where Filo Mining Corp. [FIL-TSXV; Sweden] President and CEO Adam Lundin is hoping to repeat his father Lukas' early exploration success. "One of the main reasons I am so focused on this project is in the 1990s my father discovered what is now the Veladero Mine in Argentina. By today's standards it would have sold for several billion dollars. Perhaps given what we know today we would have developed the mine ourselves," says Lundin. The Veladero Mine, one of the largest gold mines in the world, located in the San Juan Province of Argentina, is a 50/50 joint venture operation with Shandong Gold Group and Barrick Gold Corp. [ABX-TSX, NYSE]. In many respects, the early exploration on the Filo Project is pointing in the right direction. With one-quarter of the 17,666-hectare project area explored to date, a recently updated resource estimate put inferred resources at 372.9 million tonnes at 0.39% copper, 0.33 g/t gold and 12.2 g/t silver containing 2.8 billion pounds of copper, 4 million ounces of gold and 110 million ounces of silver. Total inferred resources of 238.9 million tonnes, 2.5 million ounces of gold, 1.4 billion pounds of copper, and 60 million ounces of silver have also been reported. This was good news for Filo Mining, particularity in light of what they believe to be the exploration potential on the property. Drilling has focused on 3 km of a 7-km long Fil de Sol alteration zone on the Argentinian side of the border. Two other alteration zones, the Maranceles and Potro, which have widespread surface alteration similar to that seen at Filo del Sol, have not yet been explored. All of the holes drilled in the Fil de Sol Zone, includ- ing the deepest, a 500-metre hole, ended in mineralization and according to the authors of the company's recently updated resource estimate, "The potential for porphyry copper-gold min- eralization at depth is considered good." The updated resource estimate is based on 37,579 metres of reverse circulation drilling in 150 holes and 4,257 metres of dia- mond drilling in 19 holes on the Filo del Sol area. Most of the drilling has been in 100-metre spaced holes covering an area of 3.7 km north-south and 1 km east-west. An additional 10,000-metre drill program is currently being considered for the 2018 field season to infill some of the drilling and to extend the Filo de Sol along strike in both directions. The geology in the area is complex. The Filo del Sol Project displays a full transition between a high-sulphidation epither- mal environment and a porphyry system, and both deposit types are represented. Weathering and supergene processes have cre- ated high-grade copper oxide and silver zones. Mineralization of potential economic interest within the Filo del Sol deposit includes high-grade leachable oxide/mixed copper mineralization, structurally controlled gold-silver mineralization, sub-horizontal, manto-style, high-grade silver mineralization and disseminated copper, gold, silver, molybdenum sulphide mineralization. Based on the recently updated resource estimate, Filo Mining announced it would commission a preliminary economic assess- ment (PEA) of the Filo de Sol property which will contemplate open-pit mining and heap leach processing of the oxide portion of the resource. "So far all indications are pointing in the right direction and now is the time to move the project ahead to the next step with a preliminary economic assessment," says Lundin. "We are liking what we see at Filo des Sol – a significant increase in resources… and excellent preliminary metallurgical test results with district gold-oxide, copper-gold oxide and silver zones that appear to be amenable to heap leach processing, all with an excellent exploration upside remaining." The resources have been divided into four zones based on the metallurgical characteristics and metallurgical test work com- Filo Mining poised to repeat exploration success by Robert Simpson MINING TOP: Drilling at the Filo del Sol copper- gold-silver property located on the border between San Juan Province, Argentina and Region III, Chile. Photo courtesy Filo Mining Corp. BOTTOM: Adam Lundin, President and CEO, Filo Mining Corp.

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