Afcan confirms grades at TJS

Shares in Montreal-based junior Afcan (AFK-V) shot up a nickel, or about 11%, to 51 in early trade on Feb. 10, after the company tabled some high-grade gold vales from its Tanjianshan project in China.

Recent underground channel sampling has confirmed results previously obtained by the First Brigade for Geology and Mineral Exploration of Qinghai Province. Highlights from selected areas include:

17.7 metres grading 28.4 grams gold in channel M2;

• 9 metres of 3.5 grams in channel M4;
• 16.3 metres of 7.3 grams in channel M5; and
• 14 metres averaging 2.1 grams gold in channel M6.

Afcan’s program also turned up some new mineralized structures in the main drive on level PD2. The new intercepts include a 4-metre true width running 5.5 grams gold and 6.75 metres of 6.6 grams gold, including 4 metres of 10 grams. In all, Afcan collected 746 samples from 65 channels (totaling 741 metres) on four underground levels.

Of the total, Afcan says 49 of its channels can directly compared with those of eth First Brigade, five are comparable with channels previously cut by Sino Mining. The company says that the results vary little, and that it will include results from the Brigade and Sino in a new resource estimate. At last count, inferred resources at TJs were pegged at 3.3 million tonnes averaging 6 grams gold per tonne. According to the Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the resource can support six years of mining — small-scale mining has been under way since 1997 — at a production rate of about 70,000 oz. annually.

Afcan is earning an 85% stake in the TJS project; the balance is held by The First Brigade and Dachaidan Gold Mine.