Nobel Drops Two Chile Copper Projects After Drilling Misses

Nobel Resources Corp. (TSX-V: NBLC) has walked away from two of its four Chilean copper prospects after drilling failed to repeat historical results. The company terminated option agreements for the Anais and Pampa Austral projects effective June 15, shifting focus entirely to the Cuprita and Janett targets.

At Pampa Austral, two drill holes were designed to replicate copper intersections reported by Farwest Mining in 2024. They did not. The company said the drilling encountered a different geological environment and did not intersect high-grade copper mineralization. An induced polarization anomaly at the same location turned out to be pyrite stringers and disseminations over several meters of core – not the copper the geophysical signature had suggested.

Anais presented a different problem. Nobel geologists found previously unreported drill hole casings on the property, close to the high-grade intersection Farwest had reported. That discovery limits the potential for a significant copper find, the company said, and it decided not to continue.

Cuprita remains the core asset. Nobel has completed geophysical and remote sensing surveys, detailed geological mapping, and identified alteration mineral assemblages characteristic of higher-temperature parts of porphyry copper systems – intense albitization and destruction of biotite minerals. Those areas align with strong IP chargeability anomalies and are now the target of an active drilling program. Results will be released once the program finishes and laboratory assays come back.