{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Company Interviews","title":"Aldebaran Resources (TSXV: ALDE)- Unearthing a Monster 30 Billion Pound Copper Resource in Argentina","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2070,"description":"Interview with Dr. Kevin B. Heather, Chief Geological Officer of Aldebaran ResourcesOur previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/aldebaran-resources-tsxvalde-resource-update-pea-in-2024-25-on-massive-copper-gold-project-5345Recording date: 29th of November, 2024Aldebaran Resources (TSX-V: ALDE) presents a copper investment opportunity with its massive Altar project in San Juan, Argentina. The company has just announced a major increase in the project's mineral resource estimate, doubling the measured and indicated (M&I) copper resource to 22 billion pounds and increasing the inferred resource by over 500% to 9.8 billion pounds. This brings the total contained copper at Altar to over 30 billion pounds, placing it among the world's largest undeveloped copper projects.Aldebaran is rapidly advancing Altar through the development stages, with a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) targeted for completion by Q2 2025 and a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) by the end of 2026. The company is well-positioned to meet these milestones, with a significant portion of the resource already in the M&I category and key geotechnical, environmental, and hydrological data in hand.A potential game-changer for the project is the involvement of mining major Rio Tinto with its subsidiary Nuton LLC. Rio Tinto has signed an option agreement to acquire up to 20% of the Altar project for $250 million, with a focus on testing and applying its novel low-temperature, low-cost leaching process. If successful, with support from Nuton, Aldebaran could unlock the bulk of Altar's resource, which is primarily hypogene (sulfide) mineralization, and significantly enhance the project's economics while reducing water usage and carbon emissions compared to traditional processing methods.Test work is already underway, with initial small-scale column tests to be followed by larger 10-meter columns that will simulate a full heap leach. Aldebaran is proactively drilling to collect material for these...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/1wv-MFlQAgnm-ca64e5kK4984dZB0os8-HJdRVsI74M/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzEzNTcyLzE2MjM5/NTQyMDctYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}