First Resource For La Mancha’s Hassai Project In Sudan

The Hassai mine — made up of 12 open pits that have been mined since 1992 in the Red Sea Hills desert of northeastern Sudan, about 450 km from Khartoum– is Sudan’s first and only gold mine. Montreal-based La Mancha Resources (LMA-T, LACHF-O) manages the mine and owns 40% of it.

Now the Canadian gold producer is making headway identifying six targets where the volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) structures are visible at the bottom of the previously mined pits.

The company recently released a National Instrument 43-101 inferred resource on the first of the VMS targets it has pinpointed. The Hassai pit has an inferred resource of 20.15 million tonnes (8.06 million tonnes attributable to La Mancha) grading 1.55 grams gold per tonne, 1.48% copper and 0.18% zinc.

Those numbers add up to about 1 million contained ounces of gold, of which 402,400 oz. are attributable to La Mancha. They also represent 297,000 tonnes of copper, of which 118,800 tonnes are attributable to La Mancha.

The gold equivalent of the copper resource represents 1.68 million oz. gold (672,000 oz. attributable to La Mancha) using a long-term gold price of US$750 per oz., long-term copper price of US$2 per lb. and a zinc price of US$1,911 per tonne.

Exploration work launched in December 2007 has confirmed that an enriched supergene zone exists at the top of the structure and the resource remains open at depth. On average, the resource is contained between the Hassai pit floor and the 300-metre level.

La Mancha says that the Hassai mining district is one of the world’s premier areas for the exploration and development of polymetallic VMS deposits.

La Mancha operates three producing gold mines. It owns 40% of the Hassai mine in Sudan, 49.5% of the Ity mine in Cte d’Ivoire, and 51% of the Frog’s Leg mine in the Kalgoorlie area of Australia.

Last year, Hassai produced 29,270 oz. gold, Ity 24,995 oz., and Frog’s Leg 15,375 oz.

At presstime, La Mancha traded at $1.39 per share. The company has a 52-week trading range of 4¢- $1.48 per share and 142.2 million shares outstanding.