Resource tops Carpathian’s expectations

After 10 months of drilling, Carpathian Gold (CPN-T, CPNFF-O) has released an official resource for its Rovina copper-gold property in Romania.

The company has been testing the open-pit potential of two deposits on the property — the Rovina copper-gold porphyry and the Colnic gold-copper porphyry, located about 2.5 km apart.

Based on drilling completed up to the end of 2006, the Colnic porphyry hosts an indicated resource of 68 million tonnes grading 0.64 gram gold per tonne and 0.12% copper, or 1.41 million oz. gold and 175 million lbs. copper.

The inferred resource at Colnic is 9.4 million tonnes grading 0.47 gram gold and 0.47% copper, or 140,000 oz. gold and 20 million lbs. copper.

Rovina’s inferred resource stands at 144 million tonnes grading 0.33 gram gold and 0.24% copper, or 1.38 million oz. gold and 829 million lbs. copper.

Dino Titaro, president and CEO of Carpathian, said the resource exceeded the company’s hopes.

“The global resource has more than met our initial expectations, and our original minimum target goal for the project of at least 200 million tonnes has already been surpassed,” said Titaro in a statement.

The resource estimate for Colnic was based on 49 drill holes, or 16,000 metres of drilling, over a 600 by 600-metre area, while Rovina’s estimate was based on 17 drill holes, or 8,400 metres of drilling, over an area measuring 400 by 300 metres.

The company reports that there is mineralization outside the conceptual pit outline that was not included in the resource, but will likely be included in the future.

Carpathian’s latest results from drilling on Rovina this year include 462 metres grading 0.43 gram gold per tonne and 0.41% copper, and 235 metres grading 0.79 gram gold and 0.12% copper from Colnic.

In total, Carpathian has 630 sq. km of mineral exploration licences in Romania and Hungary.

Carpathian shares rose nearly 17% in Toronto the day the resource was released, ending at $1.75 on trading volume of more than 2.4 million shares.