TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based explorer Pasinex Resources on Tuesday said a National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical report on its Golcuk copper project, in the Sivas province of north-central Turkey, pointed to the early-stage project being an “exploration property of considerable merit”.

Pasinex said the project occupied an area of 40 km² centred around surface and subsurface copper mineralisation that occured as disseminations, veins and stock works in a layered package of andesite, basalt and associated volcaniclastics.

Despite the ongoing civil protests that have rocked various Turkish cities during the past months, the country remained an attractive investment destination.

The technical report had found Pasinex's Golcuk licence clearly covered an underexplored area with considerable potential for the discovery of economic deposits of copper. The area had not been subjected to 20^th or 21^st century best-practice exploration methods, which resulted in the optimism surrounding the property.

The Golcuk deposit was reported to host typical of what are known as ‘basaltic copper’ or ‘volcanic Cu red-bed’ type deposits. Similar deposits included the copper deposits of the Keweenaw Peninsula, in upper Michigan, and the Sustut deposit, in British Columbia, Canada. The copper mines from the Keweenaw Peninsula produced over 11-billion pounds of native copper between 1854 and 1976. Sustut is a resource of about five-million tonnes grading 2% copper.

Pasinex said the Golcuk property had “considerable” potential for the discovery of new centres of mineralisation not contiguous with the existing known mineralisation.

The technical report recommended a budget of $800 000 for the next phase of exploration, divided between airborne magnetics, soil sampling, geological mapping and drilling.

Canadian project developer Aldridge Minerals is also focused on Turkey, moving forward with developing the Yenipazar polymetallic project.