High-grade copper discovered in a promising new mineralized zone

A fresh round of trenching in southern Peru has uncovered a new copper-rich zone that’s drawing attention. The discovery comes from Camino Minerals’ Los Chapitos project in the central Andes, adding another find to a district that continues to deliver copper.

The new mineralization sits in the Mirador zone along the Diva trend, where Camino Minerals reports copper paired with silver and the copper sulfide mineral bornite.

Known as a copper-iron sulfide, bornite often shows up in some of the world’s highest-grade copper systems.

Where the copper discovery sits

Los Chapitos is located near the coastal city of Chala in Peru’s Arequipa region. It lies on a belt where iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits and manto occurrences are documented in the project’s public technical files.

The district geology includes the volcanic Chocolate Formation and intrusive bodies, with copper mineralization mapped in both volcanic units and intrusions.

The British Geological Survey classifies monzodiorite as a coarse-grained intrusive rock that lies compositionally between monzonite and diorite.

Manto refers to flat-lying, stratabound mineralization in volcanic successions, and U.S. Geological Survey literature describes it as a blanket-style orebody geometry rather than a deposit class on its own.

Regional IOCG systems in Peru include deposits such as Mina Justa, which belongs to the precalcic iron oxide copper-gold family.

Numbers from Mirador

Channel sampling is a standard early-stage method used in outcrop to test continuity. The CIM best practice guidelines outline how to collect such data and ensure proper quality assurance and quality control.

At Mirador, the reported channel returned 295 feet at 1.07 percent copper with 20.98 parts per million silver.

Highlights include 13 feet at 3.05 percent copper and 23 feet at 2.05 percent copper. Additional intervals returned 26 feet at 1.53 percent copper and 62 feet at 1.26 percent copper.

“The high-grade Mirador target has nice showings of bornite, adding to its high-grade results of 90 m at 1.07 percent Cu, including grades over 3 percent Cu,” said Jose Bassan, consulting geologist for Camino Minerals.

“The mineralization is within intrusives, which could be the source mineralizing rock for all the copper at Los Chapitos.”

ALS Geochemistry in Lima analyzes copper samples by ICP-MS, a common instrumental technique used for multi element suites in exploration labs.

A strong copper-silver pairing in early results is consistent with patterns seen in published reviews of iron oxide copper gold systems. Those system-scale syntheses help explain why geologists track both metals together in screening data.

How the geology lines up

The Mirador trench sits on the Diva trend, a fault-aligned corridor that also hosts the Adriana and Katty zones along strike. Prior work has already demonstrated copper along this structural path.

Regional interest intensified when Rio Tinto staked claims near Los Chapitos in 2024, signaling that major companies are watching the area.

Nittetsu Mining can earn a 35 percent interest by investing C$10 million, according to the company’s public news.

The combination of intrusive-hosted copper and overlying volcanic cover creates a stacked target scenario. Andean IOCG studies document this pattern, which can repeat along faults.

Why it matters beyond one trench

The grade and continuity at surface help rank targets, but drilling will ultimately define geometry and scale. Camino plans to begin the campaign in September 2025.

“We expect to provide more results in the coming weeks leading up to our next drilling campaign, planned to start in September 2025,” said Jay Chmelauskas, CEO of Camino Minerals. 

Quality control and chain of custody are critical for determining whether early results hold up. Labs such as ALS describe their analytical workflows openly to support professional scrutiny.

CIM standards state exploration targets aren’t mineral resources until enough drilling and estimation confirm them.

Upcoming mineral exploration plans

Camino plans additional sampling and trenching at Mirador and will drill at zones such as Katty, Lourdes, and Diana.

Another target, Sombrero Blanco on the La Estancia trend, is awaiting permits before drilling can begin.

At the same time, the company is mapping and testing along larger corridors such as Diva, La Estancia, and Atajo. The goal is to assess how copper mineralization continues at depth.

As fieldwork advances, the team continues to flag bornite in outcrop as a positive indicator, and mineral data resources catalog its properties for context.

The host rock described as monzodiorite fits familiar Andean intrusive suites, and the British Geological Survey (BGS) provides a concise formal definition of the rock name.

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