SEG 45 Final_qx4 - Society of Economic Geologists

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EXPLORATION REVIEWS 40 SEG NEWSLETTER No 63 • OCTOBER 2005 ... from 39 Exploration Reviews (Continued) 0.109% Mo. Quadra completed 12,103 m drilling in 47 holes and a prefeasibility study is in progress. Quadra is earning a 51% interest in the project from Inca Pacific Resources. Barrick’s Alto Chicama HS gold mine in northern Peru was officially inaugurated and will produce 800,000 opy gold for the first three years. Reserves are 229 Mt @ 1.24 g/t Au for 9.1 Moz gold. AngloGold Ashanti has sold 100% of its Rescatada gold deposit to Peruvian national company Aruntani for US$12.5M. AngloGold retains a back-in right to 60% interest if more than 2Moz gold is outlined within three years. In a further blow to Sulliden Exploration, the arbitration process regarding ownership at the Shahuindo gold property has been temporarily suspended. Sulliden is in the midst of a heated battle against Peruvian company ATIMMSA over ownership of the property. Junior Fortuna Silver Mines has acquired 100% of the Caylloma silver mine from Peruvian company Hochschild for a total of US$7.6M plus shares equaling 10.8% of Fortuna. Cayllloma has 14 Moz Ag in reserves and resources and Fortuna hopes to restart the mine within a year at an annual production of 2 Moz Ag. The latest drilling by Acero-Martin on the Pinaya Au-Cu property returned up to 57.7 m grading 1.04 g/t Au and 1.00% Cu, 46.8 m @ 1.1% Cu and 0.3 g/t Au, 169.5 m @ 0.5% Cu & 0.7 g/t Au, 98.5 m @ 0.7% Cu, and 0.9 g/t Au. To date, 20 holes have been drilled by Acero-Martin and copper-gold mineralization has been intercepted over a 1 km strike length. Recent phase 3 drilling by Absolut Resources on their Pico Machay gold property returned up to 76.5 m @ 1.06 g/t Au, 70.5 m @ 1.17 g/t Au, 49.5 m @ 1.69 g/t Au, 30 m @ 2.32 g/t Au, and 54 m @ 1.24 g/t Au. A resource estimate is in progress. Work by Gitennes Exploration on its optioned Tucumachay gold property has returned trench results up to 20 m @ 5.65 g/t Au, 10.1 m @ 5.23 g/t Au, 10 m @ 5.82 g/t Au, 10 m @ 5.5 g/t Au, 13.5 m @ 5.11 g/t Au, and 10 m @ 6.33 g/t Au. Drilling is planned for later in the year. Gitennes has an option from Inmet Mining to earn 100% by spending US$1.6M by 2008 with Inmet retaining a back-in right to 60%. Drilling at Berenguela by optionee Silver Standard Resources continues to return high-grade silver intercepts including 49 m @ 605 g/t Ag, 36 m @ 691 g/t Ag, and 63 m @ 128 g/t Ag. Silver Standard has completed 18,972 m in 222 holes and expects a resource estimate soon. Norsemont Mining plans to carry out a 15-hole, 5,000-m drill program on its optioned Constancia Cu-Au-Mo porphyry property located in southern Peru. Drilling of 13,200 m by Rio Tinto, Mitsui, and Minera Livitaca/Katanaga has outlined a geological resource of 189 Mt @ 0.68% Cu and 209 ppm Mo (at a 0.5% Cu cutoff) in a 1.5 by 10.0 km area. Overall resource is 608 Mt @ 0.48% Cu and 0.15% Mo (at a 0.3% Cu cutoff). Results include up to 168 m of 1.14% Cu and 44 m of 1.1% Cu with copper mineralization comprising chalcocite and chalcopyrite. JOGMEC has optioned Northern Peru Copper’s (ex- Lumina) Pashpap Cu-Mo property located in north-central Peru. JOGMEC and earn 51% interest by paying US$200,000 and doing US$5M worth of work over four years. Pashpap has a non-compliant resource of 101 Mt @ 0.64% Cu and 0.049% Mo. Antares Minerals has calculated an inferred independent resource of 210 Mt @ 0.46% Cu on its optioned Huaquira Cu property, located in southern Peru immediately south of Las Bambas. Of the total resource there is 121 Mt @ 0.49% Cu in mixed secondary and oxides, and 89.2 Mt @ 0.43% Cu in primary sulfides. Vena Resources plans to carry out 2,000-m drilling on their Aurora porphyry Cu project located in southern Peru. Previous drilling returned up to 116 m @ 0.4% Cu. Vena is also becoming the first junior to register on the Lima venture stock exchange. Work by NDT Ventures on their Cori Puncho property in southern Peru has returned up to 7 m of 2.1 g/t Au, 15 m of 1.58 g/t Au, and 50 m of 0.49 g/t Au in trench samples across the Main shear zone. Drilling will begin soon. Tinka Resources plans to carry out 3,000-m drilling on the Luminaria gold property located in the Huaraz region of northern Peru. Most of the holes will test geophysical targets. Andresmin has completed 3,640 m drilling in 11 holes on the Winicocha copper property located in southern Peru. Assays are pending. Solex Resources and Frontier Pacific Mining continue to explore for uranium in south-eastern Peru. Work to date on their Macusani project includes mapping, sampling, and ground geophysics (101 line-km radiometrics). Several interesting zones have been identified to date. Junior Andean American plans to drill 5,000 m in 28 holes on its Sinchao polymetallic property located in the Hualgayoc area of northern Peru after finally securing land title and all permits. Drilling will focus on geophysical targets and test the grade and continuity of the polymetallic mineralization. WESTERN CANADA Regional Correspondent: T.G. (Tom) Schroeter (SEG 1988 F) 300-865 Hornby Street Vancouver, BC Canada V6Z 2G3 Tel: 604-660-2812 E-mail: Tom.Schroeter@gov.bc.ca Contribution from Stephen P. Quin (SEG 1992 F) – Nunavut MANITOBA Exploration for nickel, copper, zinc and gold is on the rise across the province due to strong commodity prices. Several companies, including mining giant De Beers, are exploring for diamonds in Manitoba’s far north. This year’s increased activity is expected to bump expenditures to around CAN$37M. Inco announced in August that it will spend $45 million to develop the 1-D Lower ore body in Thompson. Development will commence in 2006 and first production is scheduled for 2008. The new mine development will also provide access to additional exploration targets at depth. Crowflight Minerals conducted a winter drill campaign on their Bucko deposit in Wabowden. A National Instrument (NI) 43-101 compliant resource calculation concluded the deposit contains an indicated resource of 1.22 million tonnes (Mt) grading 2.71% Ni. A feasibility study currently in progress is expected to be completed in September. Nuinsco Resources commenced a scoping study to evaluate the potential of open pit and underground mining of the Minago deposit, located 140 km
OCTOBER 2005 • No 63 SEG NEWSLETTER 41 south of Thompson. A recent study concluded Minago contains a measured and indicated resource of 29.84 Mt grading 0.64% Ni. Winter drilling on the Main zone at Minago intersected a 245.9-m interval grading 0.68% Ni. In the Flin Flon-Snow Lake area, Hudbay Minerals (formerly OntZinc Corporation) acquired Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting from Anglo American in late 2004. In February, Hudbay announced that it would spend $10M on exploration over 12 months on their large Manitoba- and Saskatchewan-based property portfolio. Mustang Minerals acquired 100% interest in the Mayville property in the Bird River Belt in southeastern Manitoba. Drilling commenced in June to test conductors associated with the 12-km-long layered, mafic-ultramafic Mayville intrusion. By early August, 16 holes had been completed on the M2 zone, all intersecting wide intervals (minimum 20 m true thickness) of sulfide mineralization containing lowgrade nickel-copper-PGE values. The M2 zone conductor has 1.2 km of untested strike length remaining, and other geophysical targets remain to be tested. Mustang Minerals also owns 100% interest in the Maskwa nickel deposit 30 km south of the Mayville property. An NI 43-101 compliant resource calculation completed in February estimates Maskwa contains an indicated open pit and underground resource of 6.0 Mt, grading 0.74% Ni and 0.15% Cu. Drilling conducted in the spring was successful in extending the Maskwa deposit to the east. Bema Gold and Wolfden Resources conducted another round of winter drilling at their Monument Bay property in northeast Manitoba. Drilling at the Twin Lakes and Seeber River zones intersected high-grade values, including 4.8 m grading 31.71 g/t Au and 3.28 m grading 41.95 g/t Au. Inferred resources at Monument (2004) are 1.07 Mt, grading 15.36 g/t Au, using an 8 g/t cutoff. In southeastern Manitoba, San Gold Resources and Gold City Industries amalgamated to form San Gold Corporation. San Gold owns the Bissett gold mine which consists of an 1,100tpd mill and mine with proven and probable reserves of 818,000 t, grading 9.2 g/t Au. San Gold anticipates having the Bissett mine back into production by the fourth quarter of 2005. The company also has 3 other near-surface gold deposits located in close proximity to the Bissett operation in various stages of exploration or development. NUNAVUT Exploration activities continued at a high level across Nunavut, focused on gold, diamonds and base metals with or without PGMs. Nunavut’s last mining operation, Goldcorp’s (and formerly Echo Bay’s) Lupin mine ceased operations, joining Nanasivik and Polaris as operations in reclamation. The largest exploration program in the Territory continues to be Miramar Mining’s Hope Bay project, which is nearing completion of a 30,000+ m drill program focused on advancing portions of the three main deposits to feasibility status. Miramar reported some outstanding results from the Madrid deposit, including 66.5 m grading 11.5 g/t Au in the Naartok zone. On the permitting front, Miramar continues to work its way through getting a second NIRB approval for its Doris North deposit. In January, Miramar completed the sale of its option to earn 60% from Kinross on the Back River project to Dundee Precious Metals. Dundee is undertaking a $9M, 18,000-m drilling program to further define the George Lake and Goose Lake deposits. At Meadowbank, Cumberland completed a feasibility study in February 2005 that confirmed potential for a large open pit operation at a capital cost of $300M and cash costs of US$224 per oz Au. It is now in the midst of the NIRB permitting process. Cumberland is also undertaking a $3.5M exploration program at Meadowbank to increase resources and reserves. Cumberland also has a 22% carried interest in the Meliadine West project with Comaplex Minerals, where a 15,000-m drilling program is underway to expand the West Tiriganiaq deposit. Results so far include up to 13.7 g/t Au over 6.4m. Gold Fields converted its 55% interest in the Committee Bay project into shares of Committee Bay Resources, but granted Gold Fields a one time back in right to forgo the equity and retain its 55% interest. In the Committee Bay belt in eastern Nunavut, drilling focused on the Three Bluffs area, with results that included 46 g/t Au over 3.7 m and 13g/t Au over 2.2 m, as part of a $8M program planned for 2005. Wolfden was active at its High Lake polymetallic deposit, where it intersected three new zones of massive sulfides, including the Sand zone 12 km north of High Lake, where the first drill hole on a UTEM target intersected 2.7% Cu over 21 m. Sabina Resources announced a significant resource increase at the now 100% owned (subject to a back in right by Teck Cominco) Hackett River massive sulfide deposit, reporting over 50 Mt polymetallic mineralization dominated by zinc and silver values. Sabina is undertaking a resource expansion program and has reported intercepts of up to 10% Zn and 230 g/t Ag over 23 m. Diamond exploration continues to be active in a number of areas. Tahera’s Jericho diamond project received its permits in early 2005 and mobilized approximately 550 truckloads of equipment, materials, and supplies to the Jericho site. Construction is reported to be well underway for a targeted completion at year end; this will be Nunavut’s first diamond mine. In the Churchill area, partners Stornoway, Shear Minerals and BHP Billiton reported their first macrodiamond from the property, one of 11 kimberlites discovered in 2005, including one in outcrop. On Wales Island, partners Stornoway, Strongbow and BHP intersected kimberlite on their first hole. In the Melville Peninsula, Stornoway, BHP Billiton, and Hunter Exploration resumed exploration on the Aviat project, where 6 diamondiferous kimberlites have been discovered, including AV-1, which returned a grade of 0.8 carats per tonne. In the Slave province, Ashton and its partners are undertaking a summer drilling program at Kikerk Lake in the Coronation Gulf area. WESTERN UNITED STATES Regional Correspondent: Roger C. Steininger (SEG 1978) Consulting Geologist, 3401 San Mateo Ave. Reno, NV 89509 Tel: 775-323-7775 Fax 775-323-1134 E-mail: audoctor@aol.com ARIZONA Augusta Resource Corp. acquired the copper resources in the Rosemont district (Pima County), to page consisting of the 42 ... EXPLORATION REVIEWS
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