Rio to begin drilling at Janice Lake copper project

The foams are supposed to give physicists better X-ray sources to employ in experiments at the National Ignition Facility.

The project contains one of the largest in-situ gold reserves and resources owned by an independent junior mining company in South America.

Chip sampling on the property produced significant gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead results.

Buenaventura said that it was forced to fire some workers because gold and silver reserves at Orcopampa have gone down and so has production.

Investors worry a referendum on mining in Imbabura, the province in which its flagship Cascabel copper-gold project is located, could jeopardize the mine's future.

The Canadian miner said that the survey identified multiple high-priority anomalies that warrant follow-up reverse circulation drill testing.

Once at full-tilt, the open-pit operation is expected to generate 65,000 ounces of gold annually over an 8-year mine life.

The Vancouver-based company says there is potential to discover a sizeable porphyry style copper-molybdenum-silver deposit on the property.

Underpinning investor confidence are the country’s vast mineral riches.