Copaquire’s value is not surprising, given the neighborhood in which the project resides – a highly productive copper belt in northern Chile that includes 30 similar porphyry deposits and prospects that make up the largest copper concentration in the world. Chile is mining-friendly and considered “the place to be” in South America.
       Teck Resources’ Quebrada Blanca mine, just 9km to the southeast, is now designing a new mill with a moly circuit to be able to process its recently announced billion-tonne 0.5% sulphide copper with molybdenum copper-moly resource at the base of the existing Quebrada pit.
       Then there is the nearby Collahuasi Mine, operated by Xstrata and Anglo American, which lies 15 km to the east and contains mineable reserves of 5.2 billion tonnes 0.8% copper and 0.02% molybdenum.
       In addition to Teck, Xstrata and Anglo American, Rio Tinto, and Chilean mining giant Codelco fully surround the Copaquire property.
       The Copaquire property hosts a similarly large porphyry copper-molybdenum mineralized system to that of its neighbors Quebrada Blanca and Collahuasi.
       A 43-101 technical report delivered in 2009 included an impressive mineral resource estimate for the Cerro Moly zone. With a molybdenum equivalent cutoff of 0.03%, the report shows over 400 million indicated and inferred tonnes of potential mill feed.
       After receiving the 43-101 report, the president of PBX, George Sooko-choff, wanted to get a handle on the potential economics of Copaquire. On November 2, 2009 PBX announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Assess-ment (Scoping Study) by AMEC Engineering that proj-ects a 24-year mine life producing 800 million pounds of copper and 300 mil-lion pounds of molybdenum!
       However, Cerro Moly represents only about 15% of the surface area of one of two copper moly porphyry bodies on the property (Copaquire & Marta). The entire remaining mineralized copper zones have yet to be extensively explored.
       The company continues to add even more resources and grow the project’s value. PBX is now stepping out to demon-strate the potential of the surrounding copper porphyry. Initial results for their 2010 drill program in the adjacent Sulfato South zone have been very encouraging. Drill results from the first hole intercepted 267.0 meters of 0.57% copper including 139.6 meters of 0.82% copper and 45.9 meters of 2.0% copper.
       At Sulfato South PBX thinks they can establish resources of over 40 mil-lion tonnes with a grade greater than 0.5% copper, but that’s not the end of the potential at Copaquire. At the Sulf-ato North zone PBX anticipates proving up over 200 million tonnes with a grade greater than 0.5% copper, and then there still is the Marta with its known past-producing high grade copper and molybdenum veins and strong bulk ton-nage porphyry potential to define.
       The company has now started a second exploration front on the Marta porphyry. Initial geological mapping, trenching and sampling is showing that the Marta may be equal in size and scope to Copaquire porphyry containing the Sulfato and Cerro Moly zones.

       Geological modeling is showing that the Copaquire and Marta porphyries may be in fact one single larger system connected below surface. In order to determine if this is the case the company announced on July 6 the start of a Titan 24 deep penetration IP survey over both of the two porphyries. The Titan 24 is a ground geophysical survey system designed to collect subsurface physical property information to depths of 1500 metres.
       “How big is the porphyry system? Well the Titan survey will be able to give us a pretty good answer to that question” said President & CEO, George Sookochoff.
       It was the same Titan survey that was key to the discovery of the nearby Ujina Deposit, (an orebody of consisting of 1200mT of 0.8% Cu in protore, and 127mT of 1.83% Cu in secondary enrichment) which provided the economic boost required to make the development of the both Rosario and Ujina porphyry systems financially viable (Collahuasi mine). The estimated tonnage of Collahuasi deposits (Rosario & Ujina) is 5.2 billion tonnes of 0.83% copper.

       PBX presents a value proposition un-common in a junior with a modest mar-ket cap of under $25 million. The scop-ing study for Copaquire shows a net present value (at a discount rate of 8%) at current metal prices of $189 million - and a shareholder value that has yet to be fully recognized in the equities market. They have shown that there is already a potential mine life of 24 years, that there is both copper and molybdenum. With the Titan survey they may now show that the project may exceed expectations. If this is this the case there is every reason to expect that the Copa-quire holding will be ‘in play.’

       The 1,457-hectare Copaquire Project is the obvious star in International PBX Ventures’ property portfolio. But with a total inventory encompassing 22,814 hectares, investors should not dismiss the company’s other properties in northern Chile.
       Tierra de Oro is an advanced-stage exploration project covering the Chanchero gold camp, which produced about 200,000 ounces of gold, as well as numerous areas of historic oxide copper workings. The project contains a large geophysical target which is coincident with gold, copper and moly geochem anomalies at surface. Sierra Pintada is an early-stage exploration project in an area that historically has produced up to 850 million pounds of copper and 1.5 million ounces of gold. PBX recently identified a potentially large porphyry gold-copper target that extends for over 1 km. Also, recent review of ground magnetic intensity data identified several new strong magnetic anomalies on its Palo Negro-Hornitos properties. The IOCG targets lie abut 30 km southwest of the large Candeleria IOCG mine. All three projects are drill ready.