Minera Rayrock works Latin American projects

Toronto-listed Minera Rayrock is developing four of its key copper and gold projects in Latin America.

At the Ivan mine in northern Chile, copper production averaged 102% of design capacity during the last four months of 1995. Copper sales for the year amounted to more than 19 million lb., or 86% of design capacity.

Meanwhile, bacterial leaching of Ivan’s sulphide ores is proceeding as planned, and reserves at the Zar open pit are being defined.

With operations proceeding well and copper prices remaining high, Minera hedged 70% of its forecasted 1996 copper production at an average floor price of US$1.15 per lb. The company has also acquired call options, which provide upside potential if the price levels rise above US$1.26 per lb.

Elsewhere in Chile, an intensive work program is under way at the Sierra Valenzuela copper project, 40 km from Ivan. The focus of the program, which is expected to be completed by the end of March, is to determine the preliminary operating and capital costs of a mine, as well as ore reserve estimates for deposits found on the project.

Work at Sierra Valenzuela suggests the five mineralized deposits have a potential to host 20-30 million tonnes averaging 1.25%-1.5% copper. The results of the work program will determine which method is best-suited to bringing the project into production.

In Costa Rica, the company is conducting a final feasibility study on the Bella Vista gold project.

At present, the deposit is estimated to hold 940,000 contained ounces minable by open-pit methods. An additional, underground resource can potentially be upgraded by drilling and underground exploration.

Meanwhile, in Panama, exploration is continuing at the company’s half-owned Muro Dorado gold project. Several areas of gold mineralization have been delineated by surface mapping and sampling, and additional work is defining drill targets.