EXPLORATION 1997 — South American drills Pimenton

A drill program by South American Gold & Copper (SAG-T) is attempting to boost reserves at the Pimenton gold mine in Chile.

The program is testing both high-grade veins and associated, lower-grade stockworks with the objective of adding to proven and probable reserves, which currently stand at 92,048 tonnes averaging 18.59 grams gold per tonne and 1.55% copper.

The company is operating the project’s pilot mill at a rate of up to 140 tonnes per day using diluted material from development headings averaging 4-8 grams gold. A regrind circuit and a Knelson concentrator are being added to the mill circuit in order to increase the recovery of coarse gold. The company notes that the project has “inferred resource potential” of an additional 900,000 oz. gold (in 1.8 million tonnes) in high-grade veins. The low-grade stockwork material is believed to have potential to host a resource of 1 million contained ounces.

Drilling to date has returned mixed results. One hole returned narrow, high-grade intervals (including 0.8 metre grading 17.83 grams plus 0.78% copper, and 0.46 metre of 50.63 grams and 2.26% copper), as well as wider, lower-grade intervals (including 12.5 metres of 1 gram and 19.5 metres of 0.33 gram).