Based on 4,700 metres of drilling in 36 diamond drill holes sunk in June, underground measured and indicated resources in the Golfo de Oro, Centenario and California zones total 1.7 million tonnes grading 4.4 grams gold per tonne. Most of the resources (1.2 million tonnes grading 4.7 grams gold per tonne) are in the Golfo de Oro zone. There are also 162,000 tonnes of inferred resources in the Golfo de Oro and California zones, where the average grade is 4 grams gold per tonne. The estimates are based on a cutoff grade of 2.5 grams gold and a gold price of US$325 per oz.
The portion of the measured and indicated resource at Golfo de Oro and (mostly) California that is potentially minable by open-pit methods amounts to 551,000 tonnes grading 2.1 grams. About 72,000 tonnes grading 2.1 grams at the California zone are inferred. The estimates employ a cutoff of 1 gram gold and a gold price of US$375 per oz.
The resource occurs in closely spaced breccia bodies stretching over a strike length of 700 metres.
“The resource model indicates we have delineated resources along the Realito structure that are likely to be mineable, including the still open-ended Centenario zone,” says Zaruma CEO Thomas Utter.
The Cerro Sapuchi zone, 1 km to the north, was excluded from the latest estimate, as no work has been done there recently. A 1996 estimate, not compliant with National Instrument 43-101, pegged resources at Cerro Sapuchi at 1.4 million tonnes averaging 2 grams gold.
Zaruma intends to expand the Realito resource, which is open along strike to the east and west.
Elsewhere on the property, surface exploration on several large gold-in-soil, rock-chip and geophysical anomalies is in progress. Promising targets have been identified along the Corina-Mina Grande-Cerro Sapuchi trend and between the California and Centenario zones.
An exploration hole, designed to test an induced-polarization anomaly in the Centenario area, encountered several mineralized intervals, including a shallow, 1.35-metre section running 8.8 grams gold.
The San Antonio project is also home to the Luz del Cobre copper deposit, which hosts 6.6 million tonnes grading 0.8% copper. The project is in the San Javier mountain range, 140 km southeast of Hermosillo.
Zaruma ended the second quarter with a loss of US$722,000 (or 1.3 per share), compared with a year-earlier loss of US$427,000 (1.1 per share). In the first six months of 2004, the company lost about US$1.4 million (2.6 per share), compared with a loss of US$709,000 (1.8 per share) a year earlier.
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