It’s been more than 20 years since Phelps Dodge closed down its copper operation in Douglas, but copper mining could be coming back to the area.

Diamond drilling at Courtland area looking west towards Turquoise Mountain. When completed, the copper mine could have a life expectancy of more than 25 years.

Aurelio Resources Corporation is still in the exploratory stages of the project, but the group is very excited about the prospect of an area mine.

According to its website, it has confirmed the presence of at least 1 billion pounds of copper at the Courtland site, and Diane Dudley, investor relations for Aurelio Resource Corporation, said that the amount could rise to 2 billion pounds.

If the first estimate is correct, that means a copper mine with a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years, or if the latter is true, it would stretch it to 25 years.

The group is just starting to work on the environmental baseline issues now.

The company does not operate any mines at this time, but has two different properties in development.

The one located between Elfrida and Pearce in the old Courtland area, is 5,274 acres in size and is made up of areas either owned by Aurelio Resources or controlled by them.

The site is approximately 35 miles from Douglas, traveling past Elfrida on Highway 191  and turning either on Gleeson Road or Courtland Road until you hit the site near the intersection of Ghost Town Trail.

 “If everything goes well with financing, and there are no hang-ups in development of the project, we anticipate being operating in the next four to six years.

The area project is called the Hill Copper project.

“At Aurelio, we believe the global market for minerals has entered a phase of historic, long-term growth. This has led us, as successful mining people, to build our own firm based on a shared vision of building shareholder value through finding, acquiring and exploring advanced staged projects,” Dudley said.

The group has scheduled town hall meeting on June 18 in Elfrida and June 19 in Pearce to further discuss the project.

Background

The Hill Copper-Zinc project is Aurelio’s flagship asset. The property was acquired based on its established, drill-indicated resource, its location in a large porphyry district, its considerable potential for expansion and the region’s long history of copper mining

Based on results of previous exploration, including 275 drill holes, where zinc was mostly ignored, the Hill Copper-Zinc Project contains three drill-indicated mineralized areas, with 5 additional targets awaiting exploration. None of the areas have been fully explored, both laterally and to depth, so this property holds considerable development potential.

“We have identified three primary targets:

√ The MAN Area has an independent evaluation of previous exploration, resulting in an Inferred Resource of 63.8 million tons at  0.56% copper-equivalent. The evaluation is based on results of 87 drill holes in the core of the MAN Area. There are additional historic drill holes, as well as recent confirmation holes that provide for a potential increase to the Inferred Resource.

√ The Courtland Area, two miles to the north, has an open-pittable mineable mineralization with historic drill data that has been confirmed with drilling by Aurelio in 2006/2007

√ The South Courtland Area, lying between the MAN and Courtland, has additional near-surface, open pit mineable mineralization based upon history drill data and Aurelio confirmation, in-fill and step-out drilling. At least 29 drill holes were competed in 2007 that produced a discovery of zinc mineralization previously ignored by historic exploration,  the website noted.

Approximately half of the resource contains oxide copper and a copper enrichment blanket—-both of which could be recovered through a low cost process of heap-leaching. The underlying main copper sulfide resource is recoverable by conventional techniques of open-pit mining, milling, flotation and concentration.

Under a proposed two-phase, $700,000 program, Auerilio Resource plans to drill the above three targets in the very near future to further confirm, define and expand resources. The program includes at least 50,000 feet of core. The deposits remain open in several directions, and at depth. The goal of the drilling program is to acquire enough information to draft a Feasibility Study in 2009.

“We will explore at least eight additional targets in close proximity to the known resources. These mineralized zones hold potential for both near-surface, leachable and non-leachable copper. We acquired a large database containing exploration results at the Hill Copper property from 10 companies, including the results of 274 drill holes. We are evaluating this database to help define our various exploration programs.”

“Management is currently developing this resource project with a focus towards production. The result will essentially be a “home grown” supply of United States copper.”