EXPLORATION ’99 – Milpo drills at Cerro Lindo

Peruvian base metal producer Minera Milpo is close to having a reserve estimate at its Cerro Lindo zinc-copper-silver project in southeastern Peru.

Recent drill results from the property, 175 km southeast of Lima, are being incorporated into a new reserve calculation, which will form the basis for a prefeasibility study on the Cerro Lindo massive sulphide deposit. Ten holes, for a total of 2,900 metres of drilling, will test extensions to the deposit and fill in gaps in the drill pattern.

The deposit consists of two massive sulphide zones in felsic flows and sedimentary rocks of the Casma group — the same stratigraphic unit that hosts the Tambo Grande deposit now being explored by Manhattan Minerals (man-t). Zone 2 is the faulted extension of Zone 1, and both are open along strike and at depth.

Assay results from four drill holes have confirmed continuity of mineralization in Zone 2. A hole that tested the northwestern extension of Zone 1 for possible stacked sulphide bodies stratigraphically above the zone but did not find any.

Preliminary indications show a resource of about 75 million tonnes in the two zones. Zone 2 has 27 million tonnes grading 2.5% zinc, 1.2% copper and 26 grams silver per tonne.

Inside the main Zone 2 resource, a number of higher-grade pods make up a resource of 10 million tonnes grading 4.5% zinc, 1% copper and 35 grams silver per tonne. The highest-grade of these bodies is a 2-million tonne zone grading 5.4% zinc, 1.7% copper and 41 grams silver.

Milpo, which trades on the Lima exchange, is also considering applying for a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange.