Sunward Resources [of Vancouver] believes it could be sitting on top of Colombia’s next gold district and its latest resource estimate lends some credit to the notion.
Using a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t Au — the same cut-off used in previous report — its Titiribi project now hosts 275.4 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.52 g/t Au for 4.58 million oz of gold.
And once 615 million tonnes of copper from Cerro Vetas are considered (with its average grade of 0.17% Cu per tonne) gold-equivalent resources rise to 6.28 million oz.
Cerro Vetas is one of two principal zones being focused on at Titiribi, the other being Chisperos.
Importantly for the company the increase in tonnage over the previous estimate didn’t come at the expense of lower grades either. In fact the opposite was true as the 0.52 g/t average grade represents an 8.3% increase over the previous estimates average grade.
In September of last year the project’s resources stood at 142.9 million tonnes grading 0.48 g/t Au and 0.15% Cu for 2.20 million oz of gold and 3.5 million gold-equivalent oz.
Inferred resources received a considerable boost as well as they now stand at 359.6 million tonnes grading 0.56 g/t for 6.44 million oz. The previous estimate outlined 6.08 million oz. When copper content from Cerro Vetas is factored the gold-equivalent number comes in at 7.51 million oz.
Some of the additional ounces in the latest calculation came out of a higher grade zone of breccia hosted, gold-dominant mineralization in the northwest sector of the Cerro Vetas porphyry.
The higher grade zone itself hosts measured and indicated resources of 44.3 million tonnes grading 0.58 g/t Au for a contained 0.83 million oz of gold, along with inferred resources of 51.7 million tonnes grading 0.78 g/t Au for 1.31 million oz.
The update was based on an additional 42 drill holes and 27,791 metres of diamond drilling bringing the total to 120 drill holes in the two zones for a total of 73,362 metres.
Since the cut-off date for the current resource, Sunward has drilled another 32 holes for 19,703 metres.
Cerro Vetas and Chisperos, which sits immediately to the northeast of Cerro Vetas, represent two of seven mineralized zones that have been identified on the property. The recently discovered mineralization at the Junta, Candela and Porvenir zones do not have resource estimates at this point.
Titiribi sits 70 km southwest of Medellin in Colombia’s Antioquia Department.
In Toronto on June 4, the company’s shares were off 6% or 9¢ to $1.38 on 155,000 shares traded.
To read more Northern Miner articles, click here
Comments