Vancouver– Minco Mining & Metals (MMM-T) has inked a deal with the Bureau of Metallurgical Exploration of Sichuan Province to earn a 75% interest in the Caodi gold project, situated in the Qinling gold belt.
The Qinling belt hosts gold resources of over 26 million oz. of gold, in 18 gold mines situated in the western part of the belt known as the Sichuan-Gansu-Shaanxi gold triangle.
The Caodi property spans 45 sq. km of ground that was acquired as a follow-up to a regional stream sediment and soil survey that defined 52 gold geochemical anomalies.
Previous exploration by the Sichuan Bureau of Metallurgical Exploration on one of these anomalies, dubbed No. 13, identified 35 gold showings. Of these, 14 were explored via trenching, aditting and drilling. A total of 3,468 metres of aditting and 1,426 metres of diamond drilling identified an oxide resource of 10.3 million tonnes averaging 2.57 grams gold per tonne. The resource is classified in the proven and probable category and remains open down dip in oxide ores. Hole ZK-3101, the deepest hole, cut oxide ore at a depth of 340 metres.
Some of the highlights of gold intercepts from trenches include; 5.55 grams gold over 16.9 metres, 4.42 grams gold over 27.54 metres, 12.29 grams gold over 3.94 metres and 2.74 grams gold over 17.36 metres. Highlights of gold intercepts in the adits include; 3.68 grams gold over 24.69 metres, 5.34 grams gold over 8.92 metres, 1.7 grams gold over 39.88 metres and 6.8 grams gold over 9.2 metres.
The Sichuan Bureau of Metallurgical Exploration has been operating a small-scale, 5000 ton, test heap leach on the project since 1997 with a recovery rate of about 85% gold.
Minco believes that the Caodi gold project can be quickly brought in production as a low-cost open pit heap leach operation. Once due diligence has been completed, Minco plans to aggressively drill the deposit in order to expand the gold resources as well as test the other showings in the license area.
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