Vancouver – Metallurgical testing on Huevos Verdes gold-silver vein material has delivered a pleasant surprise, higher that anticipated recoveries, for partners Minera Andes (MAI-V), 49%, and Mauricio Hochschild & Cia, 51%, from the 40,000 hectare San Jose project in Santa Cruz province of southern Argentina.
The duo have launched a feasibility study on the Huevos Verdes deposit with the aim of developing ore reserves within the high-grade gold-silver veins. The US$10 million program is seeing surface development and construction, underground workings and bulk scale metallurgical testing on the project. Completion of the feasibility study is anticipated by the end of 2004.
Tests on a variety of vein material extracted via two inclined shafts accessing Huevos Verdes, and utilizing industry standard extraction methods, shows 96% of the gold is recoverable using both chemical leach and flotation methods. Silver recoveries now show 93% from chemical leaching and 95.7% using floatation. The recoveries are higher than those previously reported for drill samples, aiding economics of the proposed mining operation.
The San Jose project hosts major gold-silver vein systems. Four veins with a strike of about 32 km. have been identified. The Huevos Verdes vein has a known strike length of 5 km. with less than half having been drill tested. Mineralization outlined remains open at depth and along strike.
Gold and silver mineralization is epithermal and hosted in a series of low-sulphidation, en-echelon quartz veins, up to 11 metres in width, within andesites.
A 2002 resource estimate of Huevos Verdes outlined an indicated resource of 1.5 million tonnes grading 212 grams silver per tonne and 2.6 grams gold per tonne. There is an additional inferred resource of 2.1 million tonnes of 252 grams silver and 2.8 grams gold.
Minera Andes has been involved in mineral exploration in Argentina since the mid-1990s. The company has a dozen projects in the country containing gold, silver and copper targets.
Mauricio Hochschild & Cia is a major Peruvian mining company specialized in developing vein-hosted deposits and are contractor on the Huevos Verdes project. The company reports annual production of about 10 million oz. silver and 450,000 oz. gold annually from its operations.
Minera Andes reports 70.3 million shares outstanding and the issue has recently been trading in the 45 per share level.
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