Azure Minerals Limited (ASX: AZS) (“Azure” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce that exploration has commenced at the Promontorio Project, marking the first stage of activity under the Earn-In and Joint Venture Agreement (“the Agreement”) with Kennecott Exploration Mexico S.A. de C. V. (“Kennecott”), part of the Rio Tinto Group.

Key Points:

• Exploration to be undertaken in the March Quarter includes two extensive, district-scale airborne surveys, comprising:

· Aeromagnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic geophysical surveying

· LiDAR surveying to produce detailed aerial photographs and digital topographic maps

• Kennecott has committed to spend US$2 million expenditure on exploration at Promontorio during this year

Azure’s Managing Director, Tony Rovira, welcomed this milestone, stating;

“It was a lengthy process negotiating, documenting and completing our agreement with Kennecott, and I’m now very pleased to announce that exploration has commenced at Promontorio. Kennecott’s entry has significantly expanded the scope of work and will accelerate exploration on the property.

“Past exploration has focused on a small area in the middle of the property where we have successfully discovered two high grade copper-gold-silver deposits and several other mineralised zones, confirming Promontorio’s mineral potential.

“We’re now entering an exciting new phase exploring for giant porphyry-style copper deposits. For the first time, we’ll be stepping out to look at the project area in its entirety, with the new exploration going wider and looking deeper than ever before. This has the added benefit of potentially identifying additional near-surface high grade mineralisation.”

 To date, modern exploration on the Promontorio project area has focused solely on the central 200 hectares containing the Promontorio and Cascada copper deposits. However the overall Promontorio project area, which covers approximately 10,520 hectares, is recognised as having excellent potential for large copper deposits.

Several different styles of precious and base metal mineralisation have been identified at Promontorio, including high sulphidation epithermal, hydrothermal breccia and porphyryhosted. Size potential ranges from large, bulk-tonnage resources to more modest-sized, high grade bodies, which bodes well for large scale, long-life mining operations.

The interest shown by Kennecott in entering into the Agreement to search for large copper deposits supports Azure’s belief in the merits of the project and its significant upside.

The work program planned for the March Quarter includes:

1.  A helicopter-borne geophysical survey, which will provide detailed magnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic data on 200m line-spacing, completely covering the Promontorio project area.

2.  An airborne survey using the LiDAR system to produce a digital terrain model and aerial photographs covering the same area as the airborne geophysics.

LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances to the surface of the Earth from an airborne source. These light pulses—combined with other data recorded by the airborne system— will generate precise, three-dimensional information about the surface characteristics of the Promontorio property.

3.  Geological mapping and surface sampling will be carried out over the entire project area. The purpose of this work is to identify and characterise alteration patterns that may have been formed during the intrusion of a porphyry copper system.

The scope of this planned work program has generated a budget of approximately US$750,000 for the March Quarter.

Azure will release exploration results to the market as they become available.

-ENDS-

For further information, please contact:

Or visit www.azureminerals.com.au

Original Article: http://www.azureminerals.com.au/azs//assets/2015/02/Promontorio-Exploration-Commences-Feb2015.pdf