Barrick to drill Paula Cecilia project for Jordex

Under a joint-venture agreement in Brazil, Barrick Gold (TSE) has begun drilling 1,000 metres on the Paula Cecilia property of Jordex Resources (TSE).

The deal covers nine of Jordex’s gold exploration properties in the eastern Bolivian Precambrian Shield. Barrick can earn a majority interest in the properties by carrying out specific work programs.

The initial program will focus on a 3-km-long zone of strongly sheared Precambrian volcanics. The target is a low-lying ridge striking roughly north-south. It lies within the same rock sequence as the Puquio Norte gold deposit (jointly owned by RTZ and Comsur), situated 7.5 km to the north. The property has been sampled and trenched and was recently covered by a ground magnetic survey.

During the balance of 1995, work on the five other properties in the vicinity of Paula Cecilia will consist of geological mapping, stream sediment sampling, soil geochemical sampling and reinterpretation of aerial geophysical surveys.

Farther to the east, on the Jordex-Barrick joint-venture’s three other properties, work programs are taking the form of air photo and satellite imagery interpretation, geochemical mapping, stream sediment and soil geochemical surveying and ground magnetics.

Meanwhile, on Jordex’s wholly owned Rancho Orkho polymetallic property, just north of Bolivia’s southern border with Argentina, four samples yielded average grades of 257 grams silver per tonne, 0.6% copper, 0.1% antimony and 0.48 gram gold, in addition to anomalous amounts of lead, zinc, bismuth and tin.

Three additional samples contained up to 4.2% zinc, along with anomalous amounts of the other metals mentioned above. Jordex director Paul Kavanagh, noting that most of the oserved mineralization is secondary, expects to find underlying primary mesothermal mineralization at Rancho Orkho.

Jordex has also announced its intention to sell a further 75% of the Loma de Hierro laterite nickel deposit. The buyer is expected to be Anglo American’s South American subsidiary.

The Loma de Hierro corporation, which operates the Venezuelan project, is owned equally by Jordex and its Venezuelan partner, Corporacion Caracas. It owns 90% of the project, having already sold 10% to Anglo American in a deal under which Anglo delivered a feasibility study for the development of a nickel mining and smelting complex to produce 35-42 million lb. of low-cost nickel annually.

According to a revised version of this agreement, the Loma de Hierro corporation will receive US$33 million in payment from Anglo, which will then own 85% of the project.

Loma de Hierro contains some 1.3 billion lb. of nickel at an average grade of 1.57% nickel. The deposit lies at surface with virtually no overburden, extending over 7 km with an average width of 1.5 km. It is near extensive infrastructure, about 90 km southwest of Caracas.

Startup is planned for 1998 at an annual throughput of 1.2 million tonnes of ore. The first eight years will see the mining of higher-grade (1.65%) nickel ore. The project cost, excluding taxes and financing costs, is estimated at US$330 million.

“These are exciting times for Jordex,” Chairman Paul Kostuik says of the project, from which Jordex will receive “a significant cash infusion while maintaining an important and manageable exposure to the project’s nickel production.”