Freeport Completes Acquisition of Yandera Copper Project

VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 16, 2021 /CNW/ - Freeport Resources Inc. (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has acquired all of the outstanding share capital of Carpo Resources Inc. ("Carpo").  Carpo is a privately-held company which controls Era Resources Inc., a corporation established under the laws of Cayman Islands and which itself controls an exploration license located in Papua New Guinea and which is commonly known as the "Yandera Copper Project".

Carpo was acquired pursuant to a share purchase agreement, dated effective June 25th, 2021, entered into with Carpo, and all of the shareholders of Carpo (collectively, the "Vendors"). The Company is at arms-length from each of Carpo, and the Vendors.  In consideration for all of the outstanding share capital of Carpo, the Company has issued 20,000,000 common shares to the Vendors.  In connection with completion of the Transaction, the Company does not expect to assume any material liabilities, nor does it expect to devote the majority of its working capital or resources to the development of Carpo or the Yandera Copper Project.  As a result, the Transaction does not constitute a fundamental acquistion for the Company, within the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.  The Transaction did not result in the creation of a new insider, or a change of control, of the Company, within the meaning of applicable securities laws.

The acquisition of the Yandera Copper Project, which is one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world, is in line with the Company's mandate to seek out, identify and acquire undervalued projects globally.  The Company previously acquired the Star Mountains Copper & Gold Project, also in Papua New Guinea. 

The Yandera Copper Project

The Yandera Project area was the subject of intensive, drill-based exploration programs during the late 1960s and 1970s by a number of companies. The historic activity, which included 102 diamond drill holes totaling over 33,000 metres, culminated in the preparation of a mining study by BHP, identifying the Yandera porphyry system as containing one of the largest undeveloped porphyry copper systems (with ancillary molybdenum and gold) in the world.

Subsequent to that, Era Resources Inc. spent over USD $100 million and drilled another 471 holes totaling over 144,000 metres. There remains opportunity for further exploration to increase the resource.

A Pre-Feasibility Study, completed by Worley Parsons in 2017 showed total resources of 959 million tonnes of copper equivalent grading 0.37% including  measured & indicated resources of 728 million tonnes grading 0.39% copper equivalent, and 541 million tonnes of Probable Reserves averaging 0.39% copper equivalent. The measured and indicated resources equate to 6.2 billion pounds of copper equivalent and total resources equate to almost 8 billion pounds of copper equivalent. 

Location, Physiograpy and Accessibility

The Yandera project is located approximately 95km southwest of the city of Madang in the foothills of the Bismarck Mountain Range, which is part of the central cordillera of New Guinea, at an elevation of approximately 1,900m above sea level. The site is situated on the northern side of the range, about 13km east-northeast from Mt. Wilhelm, with the extensive floodplain of the Ramu River approximately 20km to the east. 

The deposit area is mountainous with the Imbrum River valley to the west and the Tai-Yor River valley to the east.  Materials and transport for the site team are via helicopter from Madang Airport or from a lay down yard which runs through the village of Usino, a 10-12 minute flight away.

History

In 1965, Kennecott acquired the Exploration License (EL) to work on the Project. They continued ownership and operated until 1973, when Triako Mines acquired the Project and had its operator, Amdex, complete the work programs.

Amdex jointly worked with Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) on the property from 1974 to 1977. In 1978 Amdex joint-ventured with Buka Minerals. Work and ownership between Amdex and Buka Minerals continued until 1984, when they dropped the Project. The Project sat idle until 1999, when Highland Pacific and Cyprus Amax acquired an EL and worked on the Project before dropping it prior to 2000.

The Project then sat idle again until Belvedere Limited acquired the EL for the property. In 2005, Belvedere formed a joint-venture with Marengo Mining Limited, who operated the property.

In 2006, Marengo Mining acquired the Project through the purchase of Belvedere's interest.

Since then Marengo Mining, now Era Resources Inc., has been the sole owner and operator of the Project. Era was subsequently acquired by Carpo which is now owned by the Company.

Geology

Yandera is an igneous, intrusive-hosted, structurally controlled copper porphyry system with ancillary molybdenum and gold composed of a series of adjacent, vertically oriented deposits along recognized structural trends. Mineralization is concentrated in several deposits, namely, Imbruminda, Gremi, Omora, Gamagu and Dimbi. Imbruminda, Gremi, and Omora are contiguous and separated from Dimbi by a low-grade, central, silica-rich zone, which is bounded on three sides by high angle faults. The bulk of the mineralization is adjacent to these major structures on a northwest-southeast trend. Locally, north-northeast-trending cross faults bound mineral domains and reflect the structural complexity of the district.

The property lies within the New Guinea Orogenic Belt, which stretches from the southeastern portion of the island through the central mountain ranges into Indonesia, and to the west of Grasberg, Freeport McMoran's giant Copper-Gold mine.  The belt is home to some of the world's largest producing mines and deposits, including the aforementioned Grasberg, which hosts the largest reserve of gold and second largest reserve of copper in the world. 

This belt includes slices of metamorphic basement and contains a variety of sedimentary packages. Above Paleozoic and early Mesozoic schists, marbles and granodiorite lie packages of Triassic to Jurassic volcanic, and clastic sediments, and Jurassic to Cretaceous clastic, volcanic, and volcanogenic sediments.

Papua New Guinea & Mining

Since the early 1970s, the mining industry has dominated the economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG) accounting for the vast mority of it's export revenues.  It is also one of the largest employers and builders of infrastructure in the country.  Mining in PNG requires balancing the interests of mining companies with the local and national governments, the local communities and landowners all the while observing the environmental responsibility and sustainability issues.

Despite these challenges, there are comparatively few areas left in the world that offer the potential for the development of large-scale mining projects within a district as prospective as the New Guinea Orogenic Belt.  Home to the giant existing mines Grasberg, Ok Tedi, Porgera and Lihir, PNG also has district-scale projects in the pipeline such as Wafi-Golpu and Frieda River.

Copper

As the world transitions to a net-zero future, this shift towards electrification and sustainable energy is creating a surge in the demand for copper since copper is a key component in wind, solar and battery technologies due to it's ductility and conductivity.  At the same time, the supply for copper has remained stagnant and these conditions are expected to persist throughout the decade.  With the addition of Yandera to the Company's portfolio, the Company has the ability to capitalize on this potential market imbalance in the coming years.

Dr. Nathan Chutas, Ph.D., CPG, Senior Vice-President of Operations for the Company, is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101.  Dr. Chutas has reviewed and approved the technical content in this news release.

Please visit www.freeportresources.com or contact the email address below for more information.

On behalf of the Board,
Freeport Resources Inc.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws.  When or if used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule", "intends" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information.  These forward-looking statements or information may relate to the intended completion of the Transaction, the Yandera Copper Project, and other factors or information.  Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance

SOURCE Freeport Resources Inc.