Sunward puts out major resource for Titiribi project

Vancouver – Sunward Resources (SWD-V) has added considerably to the gold resources at its wholly-owned Titiribi project in northwestern Colombia.

Previously, the Cerro Vetas zone hosted 230 million inferred tonnes grading 0.5 gram gold and 0.2% copper for 3.7 million oz. gold and 1 billion lbs. of copper.

Now, thanks to an additional 42,000 metres of drilling over 70 holes, the zone hosts 142.9 million indicated tonnes grading 0.48 gram gold per tonne and 0.15% copper for 2.2 million oz. gold and 466 million lbs. copper. Inferred resources now stand at 271.8 million tonnes grading 0.47 gram gold and 0.1% copper for 4.1 million oz. gold and 613 million lbs. copper.

The company has also established a resource on the Chisperos-Virgen zone that sits a few hundred metres northeast of Cerro Vetas. Chisperos is estimated to contain 100.9 million tonnes grading 0.62 gram gold and 0.015% copper for 2 million oz. gold and 32.5 million lbs copper. The target is but one of six other prospective zones on the project, with the technical report highlighting the La Candela zone, just south of Cerro Vetas, as a priority target.

While gold grades only decreased slightly in the updated resources, which used the same 0.3 gram gold cut-off as the previous estimate, copper grades dipped much more in part because the updated resource included low-copper breccias surrounding the Cerro Vetas porphyry.

The technical report on Titiribi notes that Cerro Vetas is a surface outcropping porphyry system represented by a halo of hydrothermal alteration associated with an intrusions of Tertiary age. Mineralization hosted in the Cerro Vetas diorite porphyry is disseminated and fracture controlled, with native gold, chalcopyrite, pyrite and magnetite the principal metallic minerals. The technical report also notes that the genesis of mineralization and the nature of mineralising fluids are still poorly understood at present.

The 40-sq.-km of exploration licenses and concessions are situated around the town of Titiribi, population 15,000, and is accessed by steep gravel and dirt roads. The city of Medellin is 70 km northeast. The property has long been cleared of jungle for farming, with a mix of coffee, sugarcane and cattle in the area. And while the area has seen small scale gold mining for centuries, in the past half-century such activity has been curtailed due to political instability.

Several companies have explored the property in recent years including Gold Fields (GFI-N), Anglogold Ashanti (AU-N) and juniors such as Ace Resources and more recently Windy Knob Resources (WKR-A), which pulled out of an option to earn 65% of the project. Sunward acquired 100% of the project with no royalties in late 2010.

The company also secured ownership of the 160-sq.-km Murindo project in April, but due to a constitutional court ruling against various government departments regarding the project, Sunward does not actually have access to the project. The company reports that it is still working through consultations to try and get access for a drill program.

Sunward continues to drill Cerro Vetas and the surrounding targets and plans to drill 75,000 metres by the end of the year.