Tumi gives up on Cinco Minas (May 19, 2005)

Vancouver – Tumi Resources (TM-V) has thrown in the towel at the Cinco Minas silver-gold project in Mexico following three drill programs and an economic assessment that found that neither an open pit nor underground operation would be worth its while.

The company had an option to earn a 60% interest in the project situated in Jalisco State, from Minera San Jorge S.A. de C.V. Tumi’s drilling had intersected bonanza grades that, combined with other drill results, enhanced the project’s open-pit potential.

However Tumi now says that its team of consultants confirmed the project’s very high strip ratio for an open pit operation. And the number of historic underground open stopes plus a shortage of high-grade resources would make underground mining a challenge.

An independent resource estimate for Cinco Minas, based on three phases of drilling in 2003 and 2004, pegs the indicated resource at 2.27 million tonnes of 171.9 grams silver containing 12.5 million oz. silver and 1.22 grams gold containing 89,100 oz. gold; and inferred resources of 400,000 tonnes of 137.9 grams silver containing 1.8 million oz. silver and 1.07 grams gold containing 13,800 oz. gold.

The Cinco Minas project includes the historic underground El Abra high-grade silver-gold mine, and other prospective targets along a 5-km belt. The El Abra mine, first developed in the early 1920s, was shut down in the 1930s. The property lay dormant until July 2002 when Tumi joint-ventured it.

The company is redirecting its efforts toward evaluating the open pit potential of the La Trini silver-gold project within the Hostotipaquillo mining district some 100 km from Guadalahara. The area is underlain by the Tertiary Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic province and younger intrusive rocks.