After flower bloom delays, Lodestar is finally drilling for copper in Chile – and up over +9% on the news

Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR) has begun its much-delayed drilling program at the Three Saints project in northern Chile. The news was welcomed by the market with the company’s share price rising +9.1% in early trading.

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Drilling at Three Saints was delayed in late CY25 due to the rare blooming of a rare wildflowers in the Atacama desert. Executive director and head of exploration, Coraline Blaud, said that after the “unfortunate delays,” the company is now excited to be finally drilling at Three Saints.

“This is an untested target within a highly prospective geological setting and geophysical anomaly,” the Lodestar exploration boss explained.

“This program marks the first opportunity to assess the system at depth, and we are looking forward to identifying any signs of mineralisation and alteration that could link the target to a porphyry-style system.”

She continued: “The drilling represents an important step in advancing our understanding of Three Saints and its potential scale.”

The Three Saints program is part of Lodestar’s Chilean copper-gold strategy, testing priority targets. The project is close to the mining city of Copiapó and within a world-class iron oxide-copper-gold and porphyry copper-gold belt.

Three Saints is underexplored as it is fully undercover. However, a large anomaly has been identified; it’s characteristic of these mineralised systems.

The drilling program will test the geophysical anomaly at depth and is designed to evaluate the presence of mineralisation and alteration markers of the interpreted target and to assess the potential scale and economic significance of the system to plan for further drilling, Lodestar told shareholders today.

The CY26 program is scheduled to run through the coming weeks. 

LSR was up +9.1% in Wednesday lunchtime trading, at 1.2cps,

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