May 5, 2020 – Vancouver, B.C. – Solaris Resources Inc. (“Solaris” or the “Company”) regrets to announce that J. David Lowell, a consultant and strategic partner of the Company, passed away at his home in Tucson, Arizona, earlier this week at the age of 92. David is survived by his wife, daughter and two sons.

Daniel Earle, President & CEO, commented, “We are deeply sorry to have learned of David’s passing and extend our thoughts and prayers to his family and everyone touched by this extraordinary person. David was the ‘World’s Best Mine Finder,’ discovering 17 major minerals deposits over a 50-year career. Our flagship project, Warintza, was a discovery he made while exploring in southeast Ecuador in the early 2000s, and our pipeline of grassroots exploration projects were his targets for future discoveries.”

Up until the very end of his life, David was busy designing programs to test his vision for the future of discovery in the Americas. Innovation and ingenuity were constants throughout his legendary career, which began with first defining the porphyry copper model with John Guilbert, a deposit type which is now thought to account for 60% of the world’s copper.

The direct application of this model in the field led to David’s discoveries at Kalamazoo and Vekol Hills in Arizona, which were remarkable at the time given the lack of visible copper mineralization at surface, and the discovery of Bajo Alumbrera, Argentina’s greatest copper deposit, in the mid to late 1960s.

David went on to discover the world’s largest copper deposit, La Escondida, in Chile in 1981. This came from recognizing how the signature of his porphyry copper model would be modified in an extremely arid environment by a process known as ‘super leaching,’ which five prior companies exploring the property previously had failed to recognize.

Likewise, in Peru, David identified the Northern Peru Gold Belt after library study, regional mapping, reconnaissance and sampling in a region that was not thought to be prospective. This work allowed him to narrow his focus and make the Pierina gold discovery in 1996, which was acquired by Barrick Gold for over C$1 billion later that year.

With Peru Copper, David took what was a known but underappreciated deposit in Toromocho, relogged the existing drill core and completely reinterpreted the geology to lay the foundation for an exploration program that would increase its size by more than an order of magnitude. The project was acquired in 2007 for over C$800 million.

Finally, in Solaris, David had a vehicle to bring his Warintza discovery to full fruition. Warintza was one of two major discoveries he made from a regional exploration program he led in the early 2000s – his other discovery, Mirador, was made in an unrelated company and the deposit has since been developed into Ecuador’s largest mine.

Mr. Earle concluded, “Once restrictions are lifted in Ecuador, it is our intention to responsibly recommence exploration at Warintza and to test David’s targets for potential discoveries in Chile and, eventually, Peru. We also intend to pursue the programs he designed for us to generate new targets in line with his vision for the future of discovery in the Americas. These efforts will be led by his protégé and our VP of Exploration, Jorge Fierro. We encourage those interested in learning more about this extraordinary man to read his autobiography, ‘Intrepid Explorer: The Autobiography of the World’s Best Mine Finder’.”

On behalf of the Board of Solaris Resources Inc.

“Daniel Earle”

President & CEO, Director

Reactie XEA.nl
What a loss for family, friends and acquaintances.
What an experience this man had in Mining.