Chile-based junior miner Marimaca Copper is implementing a dual growth strategy for the Marimaca copper project, located in the Antofagasta region of the country, which has already reported a notable geological and prospecting outcome.

The mine has thus far reported measured and indicated resources of about 140-million tonnes grading 0.48% copper for 665 500 t of contained copper with its inferred resources reported at 83-million tonnes, grading 0.39% for 323 000 t of contained copper.

The company intends to continue to move the Marimaca copper project through the various technical and permitting derisking milestones in the future.

In addition, in the area around Marimaca, the miner has identified several high priority targets for follow-up exploration work, which it believes will give the project several opportunities to make potentially significant discoveries and unlock what could be a new copper district in Chile.

“We really wanted to make sure that we were not spending too long trying to discover the biggest resource in the world, when the reality is to get the investors their returns as soon as possible,” says Marimaca Copper president and CEO Hayden Locke.

He adds that this is all-important in terms of attracting new money into the industry, as the first big challenge for all junior miners is access to capital.

Locke stresses that access to capital is considered to be a highly cyclical trend in the mining industry.

“The obvious way to mitigate that risk is to identify long-term investors that are willing to invest through the cycle and that we can continue to have money available as we have success despite what's happening in the market,” he says.

Consequently, Marimaca has managed to secure two core investors, both mining-focused private equity funds – Greenstone Resources and Tembo Capital Mining investments, who jointly now own about 65% of Marimaca.

“Without investor’s continuous and understanding investment we would not have had the opportunities to further expand the prospecting areas and scope,” Locke enthuses.

A key baiting component for investment is a good sustainability ethos and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals that are in tune with the country, the commodity being targeted and the environment.

Marimaca has to date completed its second independent ESG performance assessment using global ESG disclosure platform and database developer Digbee’s ESG reporting framework.

“Digbee has helped us evaluate the ESG performance and current positioning of the company and the Marimaca copper project,” he enthuses.

The Digbee framework is designed specifically for the mining sector and endorsed by leading sector and financial stakeholders.

The framework provides an independent, practical and forward-looking basis of assessment for junior mining companies at various stages of project lifecycles.

It is aligned to core global sustainability standards and is conducted by a team of internationally recognised, independent ESG experts with significant experience across the mining and resources sector.

The 2022 assessment identifies Marimaca’s achievements to date and provides independent ESG accreditation of the company’s ESG performance.

Marimaca’s sustainability commitments, published in May 2022 and available on the Marimaca website, detail the company’s ethos and vision regarding sustainability.

Locke lauds the Marimaca team, which is being led by Marimaca exploration VP Sergio Rivera, who “displays immense knowledge of the geology surrounding copper deposit formations”.

Rivera is effectively an owner of the business in terms of making decisions around exploration dollars spent and therefore risk management, Locke says.