Cusac, clarifies Taurus resource

Vancouver — Cusac Gold Mines (CQC-T, CUSIF-O) was quick to inform American Bonanza Gold (BZA-T, ABGFF-O) that about one-third of the recently tabled gold resource on American Bonanza’s Taurus project, near Cassiar in northern British Columbia, is actually on Cusac’s ground.

American Bonanza’s report, from Wardrop Engineering, reviewed several gold zones on the Taurus project and estimated a total inferred resource of 32.4 million tonnes grading 1 gram gold per tonne, or just over 1 million ounces contained gold. In reality, 316,347 of the inferred ounces, or about 30.4% of the total, comes from drill data on Cusac’s adjacent claim holdings and has been accordingly corrected. The full resource review used data from 41,500 metres of drilling in more than 370 holes.

Mineralization at Taurus is related to a major mesothermal quartz-carbonate vein system in altered basalts. Gold is associated with pyrite in the veins (both large veins and broader zones of sheeted or vein swarms) and in the sulphide disseminations in the country rocks.

In the mid-1990s, Cyprus Canada, now part of Phelps Dodge (PD-N), extensively drilled the project looking to model a large-tonnage, open-pit mine.