Rio Tinto Begins Drilling for Copper and Molybdenum at Alderan Resources’ Project

Alderan Resources' partner in the Frisco copper project in Utah, Kennecott Exploration (KEX), has drilled for copper and molybdenum on the Copper Gulch prospect. A subsidiary of Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), KEX spent $30 million and has the right to explore over a 10-year period, resulting in a 70% stake in Frisco.

The first phase, which will require $6 million to be spent by November 2023, will give KEX a 55% ownership interest in the project. KEX is targeting copper and molybdenum with the copper trench located 500 meters southwest of the Cactus Mine, one of the largest historic copper mines in Utah, with the latest drilling following drill magnetic results and confirmation of elevated copper content in historic rock samples.

Frisco has historically explored, including Alderan, prior to signing a farm-in agreement with KEX in November 2019. KEX has two targets at Frisco: a porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum deposit and a high-grade copper mine. KEX's parent company, Rio Tinto, operates the Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah, one of the largest copper mines in the U.S.

Alderan Resources stated that "Frisco has the potential to become a 'Rio Tinto scale' company. the Copper Gulch anomaly is approximately 1.6 km long and 500 m wide. KEX has committed to one drill hole with a second to follow (dependent on results)."

Previous holes drilled by KEX and Alderan on the margins of the copper trench targets have intersected copper and molybdenum mineralization," Alderan Resources said, “drilling by KEX in 2020 returned results at Frisco that included 41 meters of 1.9% copper, 0.62 g/t gold, 7.1 g/t silver, and 62.8 ppm molybdenum assay results. Another hole intersected 34 meters of mineralization containing 0.99% copper, 0.14 g/t gold, and 13.3 g/t silver."

KEX targeted the Copper Trench after completing in-house processing and modeling of the UAV magnetic and orthophoto surveys, field inspections, and a review of historical core from wells drilled at the target margins. The aerial survey covered most of Sawmill Canyon and was more detailed than previous aerial surveys, flying a total of 21.5 square kilometers of magnetic surveys at 25-meter line spacing.

Rio Tinto is a leading global mining group that focuses on finding, mining, and processing the Earth's mineral resources. The company operates in 35 countries around the world. The purpose is to produce the materials essential to human progress. It mainly runs four product groups to life: Aluminium, Copper, Minerals, and Iron Ore.

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