Normabec eager to mine tailings (April 30, 2007)

A prefeasibility study is in the works for Normabec Mining Resources’ (NMB-V, NBEMF-O) Real de Catorce silver property in northern San Luis Potosi state, Mexico.

The company has signed a letter of intent with Chilean underground mining contractor Constructora Gardilicic to prepare the study.

With positive prefeasibility results, Gardilicic will have the option to become the underground mining contractor on several deposits, which are currently being evaluated.

Under the agreement, Gardilicic will receive 15% of the net earnings from the block of resources defined in the prefeasibility study.

The company says it is fast-tracking the prefeasibility process because there is silver available in leftover tailings from past operations, as well potential for open-pit mining. A historic producer, the property has seen production as recently as 1990.

There are 2 million tonnes of tailings at Real de Catorce with grades between 60 and 100 grams silver per tonne. Surface sampling for open-pit mining over the Veta Madre vein graded 194.5 grams silver over a strike length of 535 metres.

The property’s historical resource is 533,000 tonnes grading 275 grams silver per tonne.

Over the next three months, Normabec will complete resource estimates on the underground material left in place by previous operators, on three tailings piles and on the surface material being evaluated for open-pit potential, metallurgy, mine and mill design.

Normabec president Robert Ayotte says the company has 50,000 metres of drilling planned over the next two years in hopes of finding what couldn’t be found on surface.

“The old miners went around the side of the mountain and they dug drifts to give them access to the ore and extracted what they saw,” Ayotte says. “Any hidden vein or blind vein that they couldn’t see — it’s there.”

In mid-May, the company will start drilling a projected 20,000 metres to be completed this year, with 85% of the drilling to be done underground.

The prefeasibility study will be focused on the construction of a new mill. An existing mill, located on the property, is about a century old.

The property straddles the north-south Sierra de Catorce mountain range. It encompasses 64 sq. km and 15 past-producing mines.

Between 1773 and 1990, more than 230 million oz. silver were produced at the property. Normabec officially acquired the project in June 2006, and has tripled its landholdings since then.