CORE · ASSAY · CONTINUITY
A drill hole is evidence—not certainty.
Core, assays, mineralogy and repeated drilling help test grade, geometry and continuity. Every interval can reduce uncertainty—and sharpen the next question.
Inside a porphyry system
Follow the evidence beneath the surface.
Scroll with the drill through a generalized porphyry copper system—where each layer changes the geological question, and evidence builds conviction.
Scroll to descend · Reverse to retrace the evidence
TARGET ≠ DISCOVERY
The system begins beyond what we can see.
Alteration, structure and geophysics can define a target. None proves a deposit. The test is how independent evidence converges.
OXIDE · LEACHED CAP · SUPERGENE
Near surface, copper can be rearranged.
Weathering may dissolve copper above and reconcentrate it below—creating oxide minerals and, in favourable conditions, a secondary-enrichment blanket.
FRACTURES · VEINLETS · STOCKWORK
Copper is dispersed—not waiting in a solid mass.
In porphyry systems, copper-bearing minerals occur through immense volumes of fractured and altered rock: in veinlets, stockworks, breccias and fine disseminations.
The next question
Discovery through discipline.
One hole can reveal an interval. A campaign tests whether the evidence repeats.
See how evidence buildsFrom signal to evidence
No single clue proves a porphyry deposit.
Exploration gains meaning when independent observations begin to reinforce—or challenge—one another.
01
Target
Map alteration, structure and geophysical response.
02
Test
Recover core and observe the rock directly.
03
Constrain
Combine assays, mineralogy and repeated drilling.
The minerals that carry copper
See the material. Keep the context.
Real hand specimen: radiating malachite from Katanga Province, then Zaire. A display specimen, not typical porphyry ore texture. Photo: James St. John / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
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Real hand specimen: chalcocite from the Lavender Open Pit Mine, Bisbee, Arizona. A display specimen, not typical run-of-mine texture. Photo: James St. John / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
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Real hand specimen: chalcopyrite from Kazakhstan. A display specimen, not typical porphyry ore texture or grain size. Photo: James St. John / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
View source ↗These are real display specimens selected so the minerals can be seen. They are not representative of typical run-of-mine porphyry texture, abundance or grain size.
Element29 Resources
Ask a sharper question of every hole.
Explore the science, the projects and the evidence shaping the next campaign.
Review the geological basis