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Overview
Aldebaran is advancing the Altar copper-gold project, one of the largest undeveloped copper assets held by a junior company. Altar is in the pro-mining province of San Juan, Argentina, ranked one of the top jurisdictions for mining investment attractiveness in the world and number two in Latin America in 2024 by the Fraser Institute. The Altar project forms part of a larger cluster of world-class porphyry copper deposits, which includes Los Pelambres in Chile (Antofagasta Minerals), along with El Pachón (Glencore), and Los Azules (McEwen Copper) in Argentina.
In 2018, Aldebaran entered an option agreement to earn an 80% interest in the Altar project from Sibanye-Stillwater. In 2024, Aldebaran completed its obligations and moving forward the project will be a joint venture with Aldebaran funding 80% of expenditures and Sibanye-Stillwater funding the remaining 20%.
In November 2024, Aldebaran entered into an option to joint venture agreement with Nuton, a Rio Tinto venture, whereby Nuton can acquire a 20% indirect interest in the Altar project by making staged payments totaling US$250 Million. The use of Nuton’s proprietary primary sulphide leaching technologies is currently being evaluated on the Altar copper-gold project. Furthermore, the Company continues to de-risk the project for future development through measures such as environmental studies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs in the San Juan-Calingasta region.
Altar hosts a cluster of large porphyry copper-gold systems with mineralization currently defined in six distinct zones (Altar North, Altar Central, Altar East, Altar United, QDM Gold, Radio) along 7 km of strike. Aldebaran’s primary focus is advancing the Altar project to a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in 2025, followed by a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) in 2026. A total of 318 drill holes (173,095 m) have been completed at Altar between 2003 and 2024. In November 2024, an updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate was prepared for Altar by Independent Mining Consultants Inc. (Tucson, Arizona), based on the drilling completed up to June 2024. The 2024 MRE revealed M&I Resources of 22.01 billion lbs copper, 5.08 million oz gold and 93.76 million oz silver; and Inferred Resources of 9.83 billion lbs copper, 1.71 million oz gold and 49.04 million oz silver. This report is available on Aldebaran’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.