Minco (LON:MIO) said that its 29 percent owned associate Xtierra has revised the NI43-101 resource estimate for the Bilbao project in Zacatecas, moving nearly all of the resources into the indicated category.
The new resource estimate shows a 10 percent increase in indicated resources from the February 2010 estimate to 10.62 million tonnes (Mt) and represents a 6 percent increase in total metal content, as zinc equivalent, from 650,565 tonnes to 688,258 tonnes.
It is also similar to the total contained metal in zinc equivalent in the combined inferred and indicated tonnages from the 2010 resource estimate, indicating that there has been no loss in total contained metal by upgrading the previous inferred resources to the Indicated category.
“We are very pleased to report that substantially all of the resources have now been moved into the Indicated category.
“The independent report also concluded that the potential to identify additional mineralized bodies within Xtierra's large exploration holdings in the general Bilbao area remains excellent,” said president and chief executive of Xtierra Terence McKillen.
The indicated resource of 10.62 Mt grades 2 percent lead, 0.19 percent copper, 2.13 percent zinc and 53.81 grammes per tonne (g/t) silver. The inferred resource stands at 0.43 Mt grading 1.73 percent lead, 0.18 percent copper, 1.44 percent zinc and 46.39 g/t silver.
The new estimate includes results of infill drilling completed in the final quarter of 2010.
Back in March Xtierra raised C$3.1 million through exercise of warrants to bring its current working capital to C$8.8 million, and began a new 2,500 metre drill program to follow-up on a high grade silver zone previously encountered along the western margin of the Bilbao deposit.