Radius takes back Tambor

Vancouver — Radius Exploration (RDU-V) has regained sole ownership of the large Tambor gold project in Guatemala.

The Simon Ridgway-led junior agreed to issue 1.3 million shares for all of Gold Fields’ (GFI-N) interest in the property. The move gives the South African-based major a total of 5.1 million Radius shares in return for a 17.5% equity stake in the company.

The 1,000-sq.-km Tambor properties lie on the southern side of the subcontinental-scale Motagua Fault system. The area was recognized as prospective in 2000 when Radius geological staff located mesothermal-style gold mineralization associated with a belt of schistose rocks in this suture zone. In 2001, Gold Fields entered the scene by inking a deal to earn a 55% interest in the project by spending US$5 million over a period of three and a half years.

Since May, the joint venture drilled 44 diamond drill holes in the Guapinol South and Pozo Del Coyote zones. The two zones are at the eastern end of a 7-km-long gold-in-soil anomaly. Drilling intersected gold-arsenopyrite-quartz veins hosted in an east-west-trending shear zone.

Highlights from Guapinol South includes hole 33, which returned 72.1 grams gold per tonne over 5.3 metres, and hole 39, which returned 33.7 grams gold over 1.5 metres. Moving 6 km to the west, hole 15 returned 12.1 grams gold over 18.3 metres at the Laguna target. Two other holes returned similar grades over a width of 14-18 metres.

Radius has begun to calculate the resource as part of its due diligence.

The junior also announced a $9-million financing comprising 6 million units priced at $1.50 each. A unit consists of one share and half a warrant, with a full warrant exercisable at $1.75 over two years.

The funds will be used primarily on the company’s gold projects in Nicaragua.