Drilling completed in late June at the Fuwan silver deposit in Guangdong province, southeastern China, suggests a forthcoming estimate may increase the size of the resource.
Minco Silver (MSV-T, MGH-X) has drilled 11,450 metres in the most recent phase of drilling on Fuwan, defining the central and southwest part of the resource on a 40-by-80-metre grid.
The drilling, which was partly an infill program on the known resource and partly a test of strike extensions of the deposit, mainly confirmed previous resource drilling results and also intersected previously unknown mineralization to the southwest. Only a minority of the drill holes intersected silver grades below 100 grams per tonne.
The drilled widths were mainly 1 to 5 metres, with some significantly thicker zones running higher grades. The mineralization is in flat-lying replacement zones parallel to the sedimentary stratigraphy, so the drilled widths represent a height rather than a width.
Among the better results, hole FW-0102, drilled along the southwestern strike extension, ran 1,603 grams silver and 0.37 gram gold per tonne over 3.3 metres, with 0.42% lead and 1.16% zinc. FW-0105, on a southern extension of the deposit, cut 2.65 metres grading 1,165 grams silver and 0.17 gram gold, plus 1.55% lead and 2.46% zinc.
An earlier resource calculation, which Minco announced in April, gave the indicated resource 4.5 million tonnes grading 203 grams silver per tonne, plus 0.2 gram gold, 0.18% lead and 0.53% zinc. There was an inferred resource of 13.8 million tonnes on Fuwan, at grades of 180 grams silver and 0.25 gram gold per tonne, with lead and zinc credits of 0.22% and 0.58%, respectively.
Minco’s Changkeng property, which adjoins Fuwan to the north and hosts the northeast extension of the deposit, has an inferred resource of 4.1 million tonnes at 142 grams silver and 0.58 gram gold per tonne, with 0.21% lead and 0.74% zinc, but the recent drilling does not extend on to that property.
The next drilling campaign will put 23 holes on strike extensions of the deposit to the southwest (on Fuwan) and to the northeast (on both Fuwan and Changkeng).
Hydrogeological and metallurgical studies are under way, to form part of a definitive feasibility study on Fuwan next year. Dewatering in the carbonate rocks and sandstones that host the mineralization will be a significant element in any mine design.
A resource update, reflecting both the recent and the ongoing drill programs, is scheduled for early in 2008.
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