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The indicated mineral resources delin- eated to date total 25.1 million metric tons (mt) at an average grade of 3.89% Cg, con- taining 977,000 mt Cg. The mineral resources are contained within two vertical pipes spaced approximately 250 m apart. The East Pipe is approximately 300 m long (NW-SE) by 150 m wide (including lower grade overprint mineralization) by 600 m deep, where it remains open. The West Pipe is approximately 300 m long in the NE-SW direction by 175 m wide by 500 m deep, where it also remains open. "Early indications are a big, long-life de- posit that remains open at depth," Eveleigh said. "The two vertical pipes are similar to Kimberlite pipes, but they are not Kimberlite pipes." Eveleigh believes that the mine plan might be similar to that of the Diavik mine, where two Kimberlite pipes are mined by open pit and underground methods. Zenyatta performed a crush-grind-float study with a caustic bake, which yielded 99.99% from a bench-scale test. "It's a benign process that didn't have to use aggressive acid or thermal processes," Eveleigh said. "One of the tests was for crys- tallinity, which was some of the best ever seen. Good crystalline structure leads to other good properties, like conductivity and surface area." He credits SGS Minerals for the idea of a sodium hydroxide. SGS Minerals is currently processing two 5-mt mini bulk samples, one from the east pipe and one from the west pipe. The Canadian government gave Zenyatta a $350,000 grant and has loaned the com- pany scientists and technicians to help work on this project. The company is cur- rently conducting a preliminary economic assessment (PEA). Zenyatta has some clear advantages. They are targeting the synthetic market and Eveleigh believes they can get a price somewhere between $7,000/mt to $20,000/mt. Synthetic high-purity carbon is currently produced from petroleum coke, needle coke to be specific. A really dirty substance is processed, burning out the contaminants and rearranging the carbon in a graphite layer. "It's an expensive process and it has a lot of environmental issues associated with the process," Eveleigh said. "We have a natural substance that is easy and inexpensive to process." The Balboa Discovery at Cobre Panama Great explorers have visited Panama. Columbus landed there and Balboa crossed the isthmus and discovered the Pacific Ocean. A little less than 400 years later, geologists found hidden deposits of copper in a region that has been heavily explored for nearly 40 years. First Quantam's Colin Burge, who has been working on the Cobre Panama project since Minera Panama S.A. proved it up, ex- plained how the use of modern tech- nology and integrated science revealed the Balboa deposit. Modern mineral exploration in Panama began in 1966 when the United Nations initiated a development project leading to the discovery of three significant copper deposits. Definition drilling of the deposits took place during the 1970s and work intensified during the 1990s until copper prices plummeted. Burge illustrated graph- ically how activity on the Cobre Panama project closely followed the price of copper. In 2004, the concession was reactivated by Minera Panama S.A., which was owned 80% by Inmet Mining (in 2013 First Quantam acquired Inmet), and the Balboa deposit was discovered in 2010. By land mass, Panama has the highest concentration of copper. The Cobre Panama project is located about 20 km from the Caribbean coast (where Columbus landed) and 220 km west of the Panama Canal. Balboa is the westernmost deposit of a cluster of six tabular shallowly dipping copper deposits. These porphyry deposits lie on the margins of a large batholith sur- rounded by andesite. In addition to Balboa, these include Colina, Botija, Botija Abajo, Brazo and Valle Grande. Mineral exploration in the region faces many challenges, according to Burge, such as thick jungle cover, a 20-m-thick sapro- lite layer, heavy rains (4 m per year), and steeply incised terrain. "The saprolite layer dips down underneath hills and comes to surface near the creek level," Burge said. "To find rock on the project you have to get into the creeks." Under the U.N. program, 25,000 stream sediment samples were collected. They followed up with some drilling, 30 holes. "They landed holes into Botija, and a few in Colina and the Valle Grande deposits," Burge said. Fast forwarding to 2007, a major drilling campaign was fur- ther defining these deposits. The geologists discovered a number of interesting inter- sections, especially in the Botija-Brazo area. "We had 0.6% copper over 300 m and 0.7% over 57 m in an area known as Cuatra Crestas," Burge said. "There was a major structure running to the northeast." They decided to follow it. Based on geolog- ic mapping, they believed some of the deposits were uplifted with respect to the main block. The strategy moving forward was to search for a buried enrichment blan- ket with higher than average grade. In August 2010, Inmet Mining mobi- lized a crew from Geotech to the site to carry out a ZTEM Survey. Geotech's ZTEM airborne system can be operated by a heli- copter or a fixed wing aircraft. Using the naturally occurring (or passive) EM fields from worldwide thunderstorm activity as the source of transmitted energy, this tech- nology has a receiver design and advanced MAY 2014 • E&MJ; 33 www.e-mj.com DISCOVERIES & DEVELOPMENTS Despite 40 years of exploration, geologists were unable to find Balboa until they experimented with new technology. EMJ_pg32-41_EMJ_pg32-41 5/8/14 11:13 AM Page 33