Western Metallica Resources Corp. announced initial results from its ongoing sampling program at the Company's 2,747-hectare, Turmalina Project, a high-grade copper- molybdenum past producing mine hosted in tourmaline breccia pipes. The recent rock chip sampling confirmed the historic results, as well as fit within the historical grade sections of the main breccia pipe, at both level 0 and level 5 that, are the only levels partially accessible currently.

The only sample collected from a face at level 0 returned Cu value of 0.1%, Mo >1%, with 1g/t Au and 37g/t Ag. More consistently 6 samples have been collected along level 5 that returned an average Cu value of 2.9% (MAX 5.9%) and average Mo values of 0.19% with one sample above 1% Mo. The Turmalina Project is located in the Piura region of northern coastal Peru, approximately 170 kilometres by road from the Pan-American coastal highway to the west.

The Project is located at an elevation of 2,600 metres in the western Cordillera of the Peruvian Andes near the coast and along a major road, lying within the same metallogenic belt as major projects such as Rio Blanco, Canariaco and La Granja. The project is characterized by widespread, kilometre-scale, porphyry-style phyllic alteration, sulfidic veining, and several quartz tourmaline breccia pipes of which at least two are mineralized, suggesting the potential exists for a very large porphyry copper-molybdenum system at depth. One of the high-grade copper-molybdenum breccia pipes at Turmalina was the site of a historic producing mine with five production levels.

The mine was active for ~25 years from the late 1960s until the mid 1990s, producing copper and molybdenum concentrates. Previously operated by Hochschild and then by Peruvian mining pioneer Guido del Castillo, the mine was shut down in the mid-1990s due to low commodity prices during that period. The mine is known to have had an output rate between 100 tonnes and 300 tonnes per day by the 1990s, up from less than 100 tonnes per day in the 1970s.

The mine has historically produced between 2 million and 3 million tonnes, with reported head grades of 2.0% Cu and 0.40% Mo. and metallurgical recoveries of approximately 70% for copper and 95% for molybdenum. Historical reports indicate that the concentrates produced graded up to 35% copper and 95% molybdenum.

There is significant exploration potential at Turmalina, with no exploration drilling taken place since the late 1990s and where several breccia pipes with no historic production have mapped on surface but have to be drilled. The mineralized breccia pipe measures approximately 175 metres in diameter and extends 350 metres in depth, remaining open at depth. Mineralization occurs as open space fillings, disseminations, and sulfide-rich vein, consisting of pyrite, chalcopyrite, minor bornite, molybdenite, and arsenopyrite within a quartz-tourmaline matrix.

A pyrite-bearing silicified halo to the breccia extends approximately 100 metres away, increasing the exploration potential significantly.