Sa Perrima yields best gold grades yet

Vancouver — Drilling for metallurgical testing purposes at Sargold Resources’ (SRG-V) Sa Perrima deposit on the Furtei property on the Italian island of Sardinia has yielded some of the best assays so far. The drill results also show that the high grade mineralization is open to the north.

The Furtei propery, comprises over 1200 hectares about 40 km north of Cagliari, Sardinia’s main city. In June, Sargold agreed to purchase 100% of its partner’s, Medoro Resources’ 90%-interest in the Furtei gold mine for $6 million in cash and $1 million worth of shares, and assume $2 million worth of Medoro’s liabilities.

The property is underlain by Tertiary volcanics and volcano-sedimentary assemblages which contained eight oxide zones and associated upper-level sulphide zones which were mined from open pits. The Sa Perrima deposit covers over 500 by 350 metres within 150 metres of the sulphide flotation plant.

Six recent core holes were drilled from the various types of ore material from the Sa Perrima deposit to provide representative samples for metallurgical testing to optimize gold recoveries.

Assay results were highlighted by three holes that intersected higher gold grades. The significant results included a 14 metre intercept grading 11.75 grams gold per tonne from within an interval 39 metres wide grading 6.30 grams gold from a downhole depth of 49 metres in hole SPDM-004.

This hole is particularly interesting because it is a step-out hole that shows the mineralization continues to the north. Further drilling is planned to test the extent of the high grade mineralization.

The open pit operation and 1 million tonne per year plant has been on care and maintenance since 2002, after some 138,000 ounces of gold were recovered from the oxide zones of the gold-copper deposit. The mine was shut down due to low gold prices even though the plant had been changed to accommodate the sulphide ore. “The oxide resource ran out so the mine was shut down”, says Karl Kottmeier, VP Corporate Communications.

Prior to Sargold’s involvement, the previous owner had estimated what can now be called a historical resource of 9.2 million tonnes averaging 2.04 gram gold per tonne or almost 600,000 contained ounces of gold, plus 13,000 tonnes of copper, as of December 2002. More drilling is required to bring this resource to NI 43-101 standards.