www.orosur.ca
Orosur Mining Inc. is a gold producer and exploration company focused on identifying and developing gold projects in Latin America. The Company is a fully integrated mining company, possessing the skills necessary to explore and develop its discoveries. The Company operates the only producing gold mine in Uruguay (San Gregorio), and has assembled an exploration portfolio of high quality assets in Uruguay,Chile and Argentina.
Orosur reports maiden 1Moz gold resource at Pantanillo Norte
Orosur Mining (LON:OMI, TSX-V:OMI) has reported a 1.04 million ounce (Moz) maiden NI43-101 gold resource for the Pantanillo Norte deposit in Chile.
In the Measured and Indicated category, Pantanillo Norte has 1,049,071 ounces, with 47,093,000 tonnes grading 0.69 grams per tonne (g/t). There is also 5,166 ounces in the Inferred category, with 304,000 tonnes at 0.53g/t gold.
"This initial Independent NI 43-101 Mineral resource estimate is a critical step in our objective to create a second producing asset in Chile,” said Orosur Chief Executive David Fowler.
The maiden resource statement combines data from the 5,600m 2010 drilling campaign, with 14,900m of historic drilling data - based on work carried out by Anglo American and Kinross Gold.
Orosur has been taking a phased approach to the development at Pantanillo. The 2010 drilling season represents the first phase.
The company initially focused on defining the oxide and mixed zones of the deposit, targeting areas where it expects higher metallurgical recoveries from conventional heap leach processing.
“The 2010 drill programme at Pantanillo targeted the oxidized and mixed portion of the deposit ... Outside of this initial resource, OMI intends to evaluate the deeper sulphide mineralisation which we believe represents a significant exploration target,” Fowler added.
The next phase will include metallurgical test work and drilling, and it is planned to evaluate the deeper sulphide mineralization. The deeper mineralisation is assumed to have lower recoveries, which may potentially require alternative processing methods.
Orosur is targeting a further 30-40 million tonnes with grades between 0.8 to 0.6g/t gold, from this deeper sulphide mineralization.
However, with limited drilling at these levels to date, the company cautioned that this target is “conceptual in nature”.
The company also highlighted that work on Pantanillo’s scoping study began in June 2010, and base-line environmental studies will get underway in September and October.
A comprehensive metallurgical test program is scheduled to complete in early 2011, and prefeasibility studies are planned to start in 2011.
The Pantanillo development is likely to benefit from the company’s newly appointed Chief Operating Officer. Yesterday, Orosur hired South American mine development expert Luis Albano Tondo.
The company highlighted that Tondo is an experienced project manager, with 25 years under his belt in Chile and Brazil. Recently, as Kinross Gold’s (NYSE:KGC) Project Director, Tondo oversaw the development of two key assets, the Lobo Marte & Maricunga Mine.
Both Lobo Marte & Maricunga are located on the Maricunga gold Belt, near Orosur's Pantanillo project.
Tondo was responsible for the a scoping and prefeasibility study at Lobo Marte project, as well as a scoping study into the expansion of the Maricunga Mine.
Before that, as a project manager, Tondo was responsible for a mine expansion project in Brazil, where his team more than doubled the Paracatu mine’s gold production rate from 180,000 - 500,000oz per annum.
Orosur has made strong progress over recent months with a sing into profitability. In August, the company’s full-year results revealed a dramatic swing into profit, with Orosur banking US$1.4m compared with a US$14.3m loss in 2009.
Orosur processed 1.5m tonnes during the year at 1.22 g/t with recovery averaging 93.4%, for 56,050oz of gold. The average realized gold price was up at US$1,065 per ounce, from US$841 in the previous year.
