Continental Gold can get digging at Buritica in Colombia

Continental Gold (CNL-T) has the green light to start underground development at its Buritica project in Colombia.

The company has had its environmental-impact assessment (EIA) approved, but it needs modifications to the EIA before it can push ahead with development.

In the meantime, it can start digging a 1 km access tunnel in the ­Higabra valley. It has also won the right to develop a 6 km switchback road that will run from the paved road at Buritica down into the valley.

Continental plans to build its mine and milling operation for Buritica in the Higabra valley.

The company says the tunnel will provide the undeground access it needs to infill-drill its resources for the Yaragua and Veta Sur systems, adding that the tunnel could eventually serve as the main access for all underground development.

With the approval in place, Continental plans to start an aggressive exploration drill program to expand on drill results received from Yaragua, where it recently intercepted 4.5 metres grading 20.3 grams gold and 102 grams silver,  and at Veta Sur, where it intercepted 10.2 metres grading 83.8 grams gold and 285 grams silver.

Buritica has measured and indicated resources of 1.1 million tonnes grading 17.8 grams gold, 42 grams silver and 0.8% zinc, and inferred resources of 6.9 million tonnes grading 11.4 grams gold, 43 grams silver and 0.6% zinc.

Continental says it will begin building the road and access tunnel in this year’s fourth quarter.

The next step on the permitting front is to file a second amendment to the EIA, which should cover the remaining infrastructure needed to build a mine. It plans to file the amendment by mid-2013.

Buritica covers 289.2 sq. km in Colombia’s Antioquia department, and is fully owned by Continental. The company has completed over 140,000 metres of drilling, and preliminary metallurgical results showed 97.04% gold recoveries and 95.65% silver recoveries.

The project hosts a high-grade carbonate base-metal gold vein deposit, with two separate stages of mineralization that overprint in places, resulting in higher grades.

Continental is producing gold at the site on a small scale, from a 30-tonne-per-day plant.