Cambridge wins out at Masa Valverde (January 18, 2006)

The mining authority of the Andalusian regional government in Spain has awarded permits covering the Masa Valverde base metal deposit to London-listed Cambridge Mineral Resources (CMR-L).

Masa Valverde, discovered by Spanish parastatal Penarroya ADARO in 1986, is about 80 km west of Seville and about 30 km south of Cambridge’s existing project at Lomero-Poyatos in the Iberian Pyrite Belt. It is a volcanic-hosted massive sulphide deposit with copper, zinc, lead and accessory precious metals.

The deposit has seen only limited drilling, and an inferred resource is based on only 19 drill holes. Still, Cambridge estimated three separate resources corresponding to three zones. A zinc-rich massive-sulphide zone holds 12 million tonnes grading 4.3% zinc, 1.28% lead, 0.57% copper, 41.9 grams silver and 0.86 gram gold per tonne, while the more copper-rich stockwork zone in the footwall of the massive sulphides contains 80 million tonnes at grades of 1.28% zinc, 0.76% copper, 0.38% lead, 22.4 grams silver and 0.43 gram gold per tonne.

The massive sulphide resource is cut off at 3% zinc, while the stockwork copper resource is based on a cutoff copper grade of 0.5%.

A third zone, also in the footwall, contains 16 million tonnes grading 1.26 grams gold per tonne, with 0.45% coper, 0.86% lead, 1.49% zinc and 46.1 grams silver. The zone was inferred based on a 1-gram-per-tonne gold cutoff.