Rio Narcea pours gold at El Valle mine in Spain

Rio Narcea Gold Mines (RNG-T) has celebrated its first gold pour at the Spanish open-pit mine known as El Valle.

Situated in the northwestern region of Asturias, the mine entered production only nine months after construction began and just 15 months after the production decision was announced.

The company reports that its 600,000-tonne-per-year processing plant is operating at design capacity and is achieving a 95% gold recovery rate.

Three open pits contain total proven and probable reserves of 4.8 million tonnes grading 5.3 grams gold per tonne, equivalent to 816,000 contained ounces.

Annual production is projected at 100,000 oz., though Rio plans to expand this to 150,000 oz. by processing ore from the Carles and Black Skarn deposits. The former is 10 km northeast of the property, whereas the latter is situated beneath the Boinas East open pit.

Black Skarn, which contains an estimated 4.8 million tonnes at 6.4 grams gold, is expected to become the company’s first underground producer.

Recently, Rio Narcea expanded its presence in northwestern Spain by acquiring the Corcoesto project in the Galicia region.

Gold mineralization there occurs in shear-hosted quartz-arsenopyrite veins and silicified breccia dissecting a metamorphic sequence of schist, gneiss and quartzite with foliated and deformed granites.

Corcoesto has a resource estimated at 1 million tonnes grading 4.94 grams gold per tonne using a 3-gram cutoff grade, equivalent to 158,000 contained ounces. The estimate was derived from about 10,000 metres of drilling in 50 widely spaced holes.

While gold occurs in a large envelope of low-grade mineralization, Rio Narcea’s recent work, which included underground mapping and sampling, has identified several intervals running from 4.5 to 6.5 grams gold over widths of up to 8 metres, in four distinct vein systems.

The mineralized system shows no evidence of being restricted to the drilled area, with surface work indicating an extension of the mineralization to the northeast along strike. Rio Narcea predicts that the resource at Corcoesto has the potential to increase to at least 3 million tonnes grading a minimum of 4 grams gold.

Rio Narcea’s land position in the region’s Malpica belt, which now totals 258 sq. km, includes the Monte Mina and Covas projects.

The company was recently awarded US$10.3 million in the form of a non-reimbursable government grant for capital expenditures. The grant is for the period May 1, 1997 to Dec. 31, 1999.

The Spanish government awarded the funds as part of a program to re-industrialize areas affected by coal-mine closures.

The company previously received a similar grant for the period July 1, 1996 to April 30, 1997.