Ivanhoe Electric-BHP exploration alliance kicks off first survey in Arizona
Ivanhoe Electric (NYSE American: IE) (TSX: IE) has kicked off the first geophysical survey using its Typhoon data acquisition system as part of its copper exploration alliance with global miner BHP (ASX, NYSE: BHP).
The alliance was formed in May 2024 with the goal of exploring hidden mineral deposits across various parts of Southwest US. Initially, the parties will explore six areas of interest across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah covering an approximate area of 3,655 km2.
For this, BHP has committed funding of $15 million over a three-year period, while Ivanhoe will serve as operator and provide its new-generation Typhoon system as well as machine learning and data inversion technologies.
According to Ivanhoe, its team was mobilized in early December and will begin the alliance’s first deep-penetrating geophysical survey on “a well-known and major porphyry copper trend” in Arizona with a large endowment of copper reserves.
The survey is part of the first phase of the Ivanhoe-BHP alliance focusing on early-stage exploration activities to identify and stake mineral rights within the areas of interest. Once the mineral rights are staked, they would qualify as projects generated by the alliance held under a 50/50 joint venture.
Activities for the first phase included reconnaissance work, geochemical sampling and detailed geological mapping programs. In addition, over 5,600 line km of airborne magnetic surveying and 1,500 line km of hyperspectral surveying have been completed so far.
The results of exploration fieldwork and three-dimensional inversion of geophysical data were used to inform subsequent land acquisition and Typhoon planning. So far, over 110 km2 of unpatented mining claims have been staked across Arizona and New Mexico, Ivanhoe said.
Once the initial survey is completed, the Typhoon results will be processed by Ivanhoe’s subsidiary Computational Geosciences. The resulting data will then be integrated with other datasets to develop the alliance’s first drill targets, it added.