A second wave of 8,500 metres worth of drilling has allowed Sulliden Exploration (SUE-T) to add about a third to its gold and silver resources at its Shahuindo project, 15 km west of Cajabamba in northern Peru.
The drilling defined a large-scale gold system measuring 4 km by 8 km to a vertical depth of 400 metres. The holes also confirmed extension of mineralization over a continuous strike length of nearly 6 km.
Shahuindo is now estimated to host an indicated resource of 38 million tonnes grading 0.95 gram gold and 23 grams silver per tonne. Another 17.2 million tonnes of inferred material runs 0.6 gram gold and 12.8 gram silver. Combined, the total resource tips the scales at 1.5 million oz. of contained gold and 35.2 million oz. of contained silver.
In early March 2004, the Shahuindo project was reported to host an indicated resource of 25.8 million tonnes grading 1.07 grams gold (based on a cutoff of 0.3 gram gold per tonne) and 23.97 grams silver per tonne. There is also an inferred resource of 8.6 million tonnes grading 0.92 gram gold and 22.54 grams silver.
Since acquiring the property in late 2002, Sulliden has drilled some 12,000 metres to virtually double the resource base outlined by Asarco and Southern Peru in the late 1990’s, based on 20,000 metres of drilling.
The increase in indicated resources is mostly owing to infill drilling on the San Jose/Breccia and East zones. The holes generally confirmed grades previously encountered in the better-defined areas; the newly added volume in the East zone includes material running at below average grades.
Along strike to the east, some 9.4 million tonnes of newly defined inferred resources averaging 0.5 gram gold and 4.2 grams silver were added in the Gap and Moyan Alto zones.
An updated scoping study reflecting the increase in resources is expected in several weeks.
Sulliden plans to continue drilling a 1-km-long geochemical soil anomaly on the western portion of the property. The anomaly been confirmed by a trench 400 meters west of the western-most hole drilled on the same intrusive-sediment contact. The anomaly has also been traced some 3 km to the northwest of the trench up to the Vikingo claims where Sulliden can earn a 66% interest.
In the boardroom, Jean-Charles Potvin has resigned from his post as chairman and director.
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