Romarco doubles extent of North zone at Haile

Vancouver – As Romarco Minerals (R-V) progresses towards a feasibility study of the past-producing Haile gold mine in South Carolina, drilling continues to push the extent of the North zone well beyond the limits used in a Sept. 4 resource estimate.

That estimate pegged Haile at 35 million tonnes grading 1.336 grams gold per tonne for a total of 1.5 million oz. gold.

Romarco drilled most of the latest holes in an area north of the proposed Ledbetter pit, the central open pit of several the company has proposed to develop on the property. West of Ledbetter is the South pit and east of it is the Snake pit.

Hole 325, for example, hit 82 metres grading 2.1 grams gold per tonne starting 202 metres downhole and hole 323 returned 98 metres grading 4.9 grams gold starting 181 metres downhole.

Romarco says some of the results released since the Sept. 4 resource estimate are included in a now completed feasibility study. That study, Romarco says, is currently undergoing editing and will expand on plans outlined in a 2007 scoping study.

In the scoping study Romarco proposed a 4,000-tonnes-per-day mine with a six-year mine life. In years two through five of the mining schedule Romarco estimated the mine would produce about 105,000 oz. gold per year.

At US$650-per-oz. gold the project returned a US$25.5 million net present value (NPV) at a 6% discount rate and an internal rate of return (IRR) 11.7%. At US$750-per-oz. gold the NPV was 57.2% at the same discount rate and the IRR was 19%.

Romarco estimated cash costs at US$350-per-oz. gold and capital costs at US$94 million.

Romarco based the plan, however, on a considerably smaller measured and indicated resource of 7.8 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold.

So when Romarco nearly doubled the measured and indicated contained gold at Haile to 1.5 million oz. this past September, Romarco chief operating officer Ken Brunk said in a prepared statement that the company would increase planned throughput by 3,000-tonnes-per-day and consider a second 7,000-tonnes-per-day circuit.

Now with the growing extent of the mineralized area in the North zone Romarco may also be adding more oz. of gold to its resource estimate at Haile.

On news of the latest results Romarco gained 2¢ to close at 16¢. It has about 200 million shares issued.