Partners Focal Resources (FCJ-V) and Intrepid Minerals (IAU-A) have released a resource estimate for the Loma del Caballo zone at their Barrios gold property in El Salvador.
Watts Griffis & McOuat calculated an indicated and inferred resource, based on the Australasian code, of 2.5 million tonnes grading 1.45 grams gold and 39.7 grams silver per tonne, equivalent to 117,130 contained ounces of gold and 3.2 million contained ounces of silver. A cutoff grade of 0.5 gram gold was used.
The resource is contained primarily in a vein stockwork zone 650 metres long, within a structure extending for a strike length of 1.8 km. Three additional stockwork veins in that structure have yet to be drill-tested. Another three zones occur in a second, parallel structure.
The Loma vein system is sub-vertical and occupies the backbone of a ridge.
According to the companies, the system could be stripped and mined using open-pit methods.
Metallurgical work conducted on samples from the zone indicates that a combined heap-leach and pulp agglomeration circuit could optimize gold and silver recoveries.
To prove up a larger resource there, the partners plan to conduct infill drilling on the southern portion of the zone. Recent geological work has confirmed the continuity of the area’s vein-stockwork system. Other zones also will be tested.
In addition, the companies have completed geochemical work along the 1.6-km-long Virginia-Agua Caliente breccia target. Six samples from dumps assayed an average of 1.17 grams gold and 138.7 grams silver per tonne.
A drill program will test the Divisadero target, a historic producer which has turned out 5.6 million oz. silver and 84,000 oz. gold. Stockworks ranging in width from 40 to 60 metres are reported on the fifth and sixth levels.
Those zones will be the target of drilling programs to be conducted this year and in 1998.
Be the first to comment on "LATIN AMERICA — Focal and Intrepid release resource for Barrios"