Altair Minerals Ltd (ASX:ALR) is preparing to acquire a high-grade copper project in Peru which is located along the Andahuaylas Yauri Porphyry Belt – home to three deposits that together comprise more than one billion tonnes of the red metal – and that are along strike of this project.

The Venatica copper project sits on the northern extension of this belt and is comprised of 34 claims across 337 square kilometres of territory.

It is also located only 60 kilometres from MMG Ltd’s Las Bambas mine, which is responsible for 2% of the global copper supply. And, crucially, Venatica contains the same host rocks, structures, and geological controls as Las Bambas, including grades of more than 6% copper found in outcroppings.

Within Venatica’s regional system, Altair has identified two main targets: Irka NE – a high-grade felsic porphyry measuring four square kilometres with copper, silver and moly mineralisation – and Irka SW, a copper-gold porphyry-skarn measuring more than six square kilometres.

The most promising is Irka NE, which is defined as an “exceptionally large target,” featuring significant copper presence across a strike of 3.4km, with collected samples showing between 3,000 and 60,000 parts per million copper.

However, the majority of the project is untested, and Altair believes it can uncover more high-grade copper systems there. Additionally, the true lateral extent of both porphyry systems remains completely open.

Altair shares have jumped on the news, and at 11:52 AEDT, they were trading at 0.3 cents – a rise of 40% since market open.

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