PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Orinoco Gold has reported a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant mineral resource of 4 500 t, grading 15.4 g/t gold for 2 200 oz of contained gold at its Cascavel project, in Brazil.
The company told shareholders on Monday that the mineral resource estimate covered only the portion of the Cascavel lode which has been opened up for the underground mine development.
Given that the mineralisation remained open both down-dip and along strike, an exploration target of between 15 000 t and 46 000 t, grading at between 16 g/t and 49 g/t, for between 23 000 oz and 24 000 oz of contained gold, has also been estimated.
Orinoco CEO Craig Dawson said on Monday that a maiden mineral resource and exploration target at Cascavel marked a significant milestone for the company, as its understanding of the geometry, structure and grade distribution within the lode system continued to grow.
“Ultimately, the best way of modelling coarse gold systems is to open them up with mine development which we have now done with a small part of the overall high-grade lode system at Cascavel. The maiden mineral resource covers the area defined by mine development to date, and is therefore extremely limited in scope.”
Dawson said that there was also near-mine potential associated with the Cuca lode system, which is below the Cascavel lode, with an assessment of the Coca lode system planned for the first half of 2018.