Sampling ups RJK’s reserves

The reserve figure could jump 50% (from about one million ounces to 1.6 million oz) and may very well increase by 100% (to 2.1 million oz), according to project operator RJK Mineral (VSE).

This increase could make the two deposits an attractive open pit mining proposition for RJK and property holder Greater Lenora Resources (TSE).

Preliminary engineering work for a 6,000-tons-per-day open pit operation indicates a capital cost of about $80 million.

RJK can earn a 60% interest in the two properties by completing the current program, and Cominco Ltd. (TSE) has agreed to reduce its interest in the Box property to a 1.5% net smelter return, RJK President Bob Kasner says.

The increase in reserves is based on early results from a sampling program conducted this summer.

Final results of the program are expected by the end of December and a new reserve estimate will be compiled by early spring.

The program was designed by Casmyn Research & Engineering of Oakville, Ont., to eliminate the effects of arbitrary sampling techniques typically used on deposits with a high proportion of gold nuggets.

Because of the nuggety nature of the mineralization, estimates of gold reserves based on the fire assaying results of drill core concluded that 13.7 million tons of mineralization grading 0.052 oz gold per ton in the Box deposit and 5.5 million tons of 0.065-oz-gold- per-ton material in the Athona fit into a cutoff grade scenario of 0.015 oz.

In the total gold extraction technique, fine cuttings from reverse circulation drill holes are being milled to about 70-80% minus 200 mesh and leached with cyanide by Casmyn to determine their total gold content. A total of 3,000 samples weighing 90 lb each were collected and about 2,200 of these have been assayed so far.

A table of the early results examined by The Northern Miner revealed dramatic increases in gold assays of up to 1,600%, compared with fire assay results (from 0.004 to 0.068). About 25-45% of the samples are above the cutoff grade, compared with 15% if the fire assay technique is used.

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