Celeste Copper says it plans to divest Chilean claims to focus on South Crofty mine

Celeste Copper Corp (CVE:C) said Tuesday that it plans to divest its remaining Chilean claims to focus on the development of its South Crofty mine in Cornwall, UK. 

The tin and copper miner, as it realizes its main focus on its UK operations, is planning to rid itself of the claims in Chile either on a joint venture basis, or through an outright sale. 

The Celeste IV to X claims in Chile are located 70 kilometres southeast of Copiapo, Chile. They cover mining concessions totaling an area of 24 square kilometres. 

The Candeleria IOCG deposit, with reported reserves of roughly 400 million tonnes, is located around 40 km from the property on the other side of the Cabeza De Vaca intrusion, Celeste said. 

The miner noted in its statement Tuesday that interested parties should contact Celeste directly.

The Chilean property is a "non material component" of the company, Celeste said, with nearly 100 per cent of management time and efforts being spent on its South Crofty, England property.

Shares of Celeste Copper moved higher by 10 per cent to 5.5 cents on the TSX Venture Exchange shortly after the announcement this afternoon. 

As divulged earlier this month, the company will shortly be filing the updated NI 43-101 compliant estimate for the Dolcoath section of the South Crofty project. 

The estimate holds an inferred resource of 2.47 million tonnes grading 0.46 per cent tin, 0.54 per cent copper and 0.23 per cent zinc. 

The property is also projected to hold an exploration target of between 6.7 and 13.5 million tonnes with grades ranging between 1.4 and 1.8 per cent tin in an area east of the Great Crosscourse within the South Crofty mine. 

In addition, there is another exploration target estimated of between 1.25 and 2.5 million tonnes with grades ranging between 1.25 and 1.6 per cent tin in the Dolcoath deep and Roskear areas of the property. 

The estimate, prepared by Micromine Consulting Services, includes all project exploration drill hole and channel sampling data from work completed from 2008 to February 2012.