Gold Vessel likes cash flow, promised by Arizona gold bet

Gold Vessel Resources (ASE) recently agreed to invest up to $1.5 million in an old Arizona mining property in the hope that it will generate some quick cash flow while yielding as yet undiscovered gold reserves.

The Harquahala property, in a mountainous region of western Arizona, is owned and operated by Harqpro Inc., a private Arizona corporation which in turn is a 70% owned subsidiary of Gold Spinners International.

Gold Spinners and Gold Vessel both have a stake in the Manitou gold tailings project near Val d’Or, Que.

While there are similarities between Manitou and Harquahala, the potential of the latter project is much greater, Gold Vessel director John Parrot told The Northern Miner.

The Arizona project consists of two underground mines, their respective patented claim groups, as well as almost 1,000 additional acres of unpatented mining claims.

Over the next 18 months Gold Vessel can earn up to a 50% working interest at Harquahala by spending US$1.5 million on the project. That money will be used to expand an existing heap leach pad and finance exploration in and around the former Bonanza and Golden Eagle gold mines which produced over 200,000 oz. gold around the turn of the century.

About 60,000 tons of stockpiled material (grading about 0.05 oz. gold per ton) is waiting on surface to be placed on the pad. Another 250,000 tons of similar-type low- grade oxide material are in stopes within the underground workings of the Bonanza mine.

If everything goes according to plan, the joint venture should be able to produce at least 15,000 oz. gold this year, said Norman Brewster who is acting as a consultant to Gold Vessel. Brewster is president of Augmitto Explorations (TSE), which is a joint venture partner with St. Genevieve Resources (TSE) and Gold Vessel at the Parbec gold project in northwestern Quebec. He is also a Gold Vessel director.

Brewster and Parrot are encouraged by the fact that all of the gold produced by Bonanza and Golden Eagle was extracted from above the 300-ft. level. As a result, material contained in the old stopes can be extracted by open pit mining methods.

Also encouraging are the results of metallurgical tests carried out by Nevada-based consulting firm Kappes, Cassiday & Associates on samples taken from the property. According to Gold Vessel, those tests indicate that the ore is amenable to heap leach cyanide extraction, with average recovery rates of 80% in 40 days.

A prefeasibility study is being completed and heavy equipment was being moved onto the property last week, according to Parrot.