The company completed a 5,000m drilling programme in late 2021, with assay results including 50m grading 1.74% and 105m grading 0.63% copper and 4 grams per tonne gold. Once all the results are in, a resource calculation will follow.
"The goal of that programme was to confirm the historical resource and start working towards expansion. We know there's an oxide copper deposit there with some sulphide at depth. Our job was to go in and fill in some rather large gaps within the resource area and start stepping out. We've released maybe the first 20 holes out of a 36-hole programme so once [all the results are back] and all that data is incorporated into the geologic model, we can start working on a resource estimate," said Trotman.
San Javier is a shallow copper oxide deposit which is potentially amenable to heap leaching. Metallurgical testwork is ongoing and is expected to show the copper is recoverable via simple and cheap recovery methods. "We'll move pretty quickly to push this to a place where we can demonstrate to investors that there'll be a mine and a mine that is cashflow positive and can make money," said Trotman.
San Javier also contains a pocket of higher-grade gold mineralisation which it may ultimately be able to process at Osisko Development's nearby and permitted San Antonio project, particularly that Osisko is Barksdale‘s largest shareholder.
"Our primary focus is copper so we won't be able to recover the gold from a simple heap leach, but next door they could. Our neighbor, Osisko Development, is developing a gold project down the road and they will have the ability to process gold ores with copper in them on a heap leach pad. It could become an interesting opportunity for us to if the test work demonstrates that it's viable to ship this material just down the street," said Trotman.
In Arizona, Trotman hopes to be able to start drilling at the Sunnyside project which is adjacent to South32's Hermosa project, which it has been permitting for exploration since 2018. "We're coming to the end of that process and could be here in the next couple of weeks. I firmly believe we'll be drilling this year and I hope we can have the permits in hand in here in the next couple of months," said Trotman.
Shares in Barksdale Resources are trading at C33, valuing the company at $21 million.
