Greenstone Res. seeks financing

Now that Greenstone Resources has secured total ownership of Panamanian-based Minas Santa Rosa S.A., the next step is to rustle up financing for the gold project.

Greenstone picked up the remaining 51% of Santa Rosa from Swedish-based Boliden International Mining.

“Minable” reserves on the two key concessions adjacent to the Santa Rosa open pit are 7.9 million tons grading 0.049 oz. gold per ton. Another 2.7 million tons of 0.043-oz. material lie within the pit.

The project, 125 miles southwest of Panama City, has been granted all final government approvals, including environmental clearances, Greenstone reports. Infrastructure work is under way.

Initial capacity will be 5,500 tons per day yielding 60,000 oz. per year. That is expected to rise gradually to 100,000 oz. at an average cash operating cost of US$180 per oz.

“It will be Central America’s largest new gold mining project,” Greenstone noted.

Another $8.7 million is needed to fund the deposit to production. The company is negotiating with a prospective joint venturer but may choose to go it alone.

The manager of operations will be Bruce Thorndycraft, who has been involved in such developments as Omai in Guyana, Santa Gertrudis in Mexico, San Cristobal in Chile and many others in the U.S. and Canada.

Having spent nine years in the region, Greenstone already is a proven, though small, Latin American gold producer. Apart from Santa Rosa, it operates the Oronorte mine, in northwestern Colombia. In calendar 1992, the mine yielded 14,000 oz., and production for the current year should reach 16,000 oz., says James Macintosh, manager of corporate development.

In Nicaragua, Greenstone is hoping to close a deal on the La Libertad mine by June. The gold project, 75 miles east of Managua, is being mined by open pit and underground. With Greenstone’s participation, a feasibility study will be completed with a projected startup for an expanded operation by January, 1995. Greenstone plans to have a 37.5% interest in the 60,000-oz.-per-year producer.

On the exploration front, the company is negotiating with the Colombian government to explore a large land package in the southeastern part of that country, near the Brazilian border. Garimpeiros (regional miners) work the area now and some of the recovered grades using rudimentary ball and stamp mills are spectacular — in the neighborhood of 100 grams per tonne (2.9 oz. per ton) and higher, Macintosh told The Northern Miner.

Initially, Greenstone would launch a sampling/geochemical program over the 56 miles of strike length.