Teras top 1M oz. gold at Cahuilla in Cali

Calgary-based explorer Teras Resources (TRA-V) accomplished its first goal at its flagship Cahuilla gold-silver project in northwest Imperial County, California. On Nov. 30, the company pulled together historic data and results from a two-year drill campaign to release an inaugural resource estimate. 

Teras is fulfilling an earn-in agreement with Consolidated Goldfields (CDGF-O) that could see the company hold a 100% stake in the project by 2013. Teras holds a 65% interest in Cahuilla and can seize full ownership by issuing an additional 10 million shares and spending US$1 million on the property over the next 24 months.

Cahuilla is an epithermal, sediment-hosted hot springs vein, stockwork and disseminated gold-silver system lying along an east–west structural zone. Most of Teras’ deposit is hosted on the Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation. Historic work by Kennecott Exploration through the mid-1990s established a rough, historic resource totalling around 800,000 oz. gold, and Teras’ initial work involved confirmation and delineation drilling aimed at beefing up the deposit.

Following two years of drilling, Teras holds a database totalling 368 holes over 192,900 metres. Cahuilla now hosts 64 million tonnes averaging 0.43 gram gold per tonne and 4.8 grams silver per tonne for 1 million contained oz. gold and 11.9 million contained oz. silver. The project holds an additional 8.8 million inferred tonnes averaging 0.31 gram gold and 2.8 grams silver for 110,000 contained oz. gold and 954,000 contained oz. silver.

Teras ran two reverse-circulation drill rigs at its site through most of 2012, and notes that 37 recent drill holes were not included in its resource estimate. The company’s exploration strategy has two elements: to drill along the margins of the known deposit to the south and east, where limited historic work was completed, and to continue delineating the high-grade veins, while hunting for feeder zones at depth.

Mineralization has yet to be tested to depths exceeding 250 metres. On Nov. 21, the company reported cutting higher-grades at 170 metres depth, highlighted by 21 metres averaging 2.26 grams gold in hole 297, with 1.5 metres of 15 grams gold and 524 grams silver.

More drill highlights from Teras’ program include: 17 metres grading 2.64 grams gold from 93 metres in hole 282; 15.3 metres averaging 1.1 grams gold from 53 metres depth in hole 295; and 7.6 metres of 1.64 grams gold from 79 metres in hole 283.

Teras has traded within a 52-week range of $1.18 and 60¢ per share, and reported US$1.4 million in working capital at the end of August. The company has 93 million shares outstanding, and maintains a $55.8-million press time market capitalization. Teras closed at 60¢ on Nov. 30.