Drilling shows open pit potential at Morro do Vento

Drilling by Desert Sun Mining (DSM-T) at its Jacobina property in Bahia state, Brazil, is indicating a low-grade resource could be built up at the Morro do Vento gold prospect.

Results from eight recent drill holes at Morro do Vento returned significant gold grades over true widths of 48 to 62 metres. Known mineralization at the prospect occurs in showings along a strike length of about 2 km.

Hole MVT-293, drilled near the middle of Morro do Vento’s “Intermediate Reef” sequence (part of the Jacobina stratigraphy, which extends at least 10 km north and south of the former Jacobina gold mine) intersected 49.5 metres of gold mineralization grading 0.8 gram per tonne. A second hole drilled on the same section, MVT-295, intersected 81.6 metres grading 0.8 gram per tonne about 50 metres below the first hole. That intersection represented a true width of around 57 metres.

Another hole drilled 100 metres to the north of that section, MVT-301, cut a 71.2-metre core length running 0.7 gram gold per tonne, representing a 62-metre mineralized width. Another 150 metres to the north, hole MVT-297, intersected 1 gram gold per tonne over 48 metres.

Two other holes returned grades around 0.6 gram per tonne over comparable widths, while two others intersected higher-grade mineralization over narrower widths.

Induced polarization surveys on the prospect have been interpreted to show that the mineralization extends at least to 400 metres vertical depth.

There is currently no definitive resource estimate on Morro do Vento, which was not included in a recent feasibility study on reopening the Jacobina mine. That study estimated a reserve of 10.7 million tonnes grading 2.2 grams gold per tonne in three deposits — Joao Belo, Serra do Corrego, and the Itapicuru Basal Reef.

The Morro do Vento mineralization occurs on the east side of a north-south hill, suggesting that if an economic tonnage could be built up, the deposit could be mined by open pit with a very low stripping ratio.