Luca’s Campo Morado drilling: mine-life and expansion signals for planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
New drilling at Luca Mining’s 2,500 t/d Campo Morado underground polymetallic mine in Guerrero, Mexico, is intersecting long, near-surface sulphide intervals in unmined zones adjacent to existing workings. Standout hole CMUG-26-50 at Largo Norte cut ~184 m from 3.6 m depth grading 1.18 g/t Au, 72.42 g/t Ag, 0.39% Cu, 0.45% Pb and 1.67% Zn, including 18 m at 2.64 g/t Au and 152.34 g/t Ag, while Naranjo hole CMNJ-26-02 returned 9.6 m at 4.05 g/t Au, 241.09 g/t Ag and 0.90% Cu from 175.3 m. With C$34 million budgeted for 80,000 m of drilling across Campo Morado and Tahuehueto and 16.6 Mt already in measured and indicated resources, these near-infrastructure intercepts point to incremental tonnes and mine-life extension ahead of a year-end expansion technical update.
Technical Brief
- Campo Morado’s plant is rated at about 2,500 t/d, constraining how fast new tonnes can be absorbed.
- The mine lies ~160 km south-west of Mexico City in Guerrero, with multiple discrete sulphide lenses already defined.
- Current campaign uses two surface rigs plus one underground rig, enabling both step-out and infill coverage.
- To date, 13,571 m from 60 underground holes and 20,063 m from 75 surface holes have been completed.
- Campo Morado’s 2018 PEA reports 16.6 Mt M&I at 4.01% Zn, 0.80% Cu, 0.93% Pb, 123 g/t Ag and 1.70 g/t Au.
- Contained metals in those resources total ~700 koz Au, 62 Moz Ag, 200 Mlb Cu, 300 Mlb Pb and 1.2 Blb Zn.
Our Take
Luca Mining’s parallel high‑grade success at Tahuehueto in Durango (7.6 m at 14.27 g/t gold in DDH26‑SU‑01 from our March 2026 coverage) suggests the company is systematically targeting resource growth across its Mexican portfolio rather than treating Campo Morado as a stand‑alone optimisation play.
With Campo Morado already carrying about 200 million lb copper and 300 million lb lead in measured and indicated resources, the scale positions Luca in the mid‑tier base‑metals bracket within our copper‑ and gold‑tagged project coverage, which can improve its optionality for future streaming or royalty deals similar in structure to the US$500 million package seen in i‑80 Gold’s February 2026 financing.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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