LATIN AMERICA SPECIAL — Metates poses challenges for project

The Metates gold deposit in Mexico’s Durango state hosts a preliminary inventory of more than 200 million tonnes grading 1.2 grams of gold equivalent per tonne.

Gold and silver account for about 80% and 20% of the gold equivalent grade, respectively; other potentially economic minerals were not considered. Project operator Cambior (TSE) notes that this mineral inventory includes resources from the Main and Northwest zones only, and is entirely composed of sulphide mineralization. Results from an ongoing drilling program suggest that the North zone will add significantly to the reported inventory. Cambior notes, however, that while Metates is a world-class deposit in terms of in-situ resources, various challenges related to infrastructure, the environment and economic extraction of metals must be met in order to make it a world-class mine.

An extensive metallurgical program is under way, and preliminary results indicate that the mineralization is refractory in terms of conventional extraction techniques. Bio-oxidation test work is included in the metallurgical program.

Cambior has been active on the project since 1993, when it signed an agreement with Mexican company Lusimin S.A. de C.V.

To the end of 1994, Cambior completed 38,000 metres of drilling at Metates. This work has resulted in the definition of three resource areas: the Main zone, dominated by intrusion-hosted mineralization; the Northwest zone, situated in the area of a soil anomaly along strike of the Main zone, where mineralization is hosted in sediments in the hangingwall of the intrusion; and the North zone, where resources lie entirely within sediments remote from outcrops of the intrusion.

Metates lies within the rugged Barranca terrain of the Sierra Madre Occidental, about 160 km east-northeast of the city of Durango, near the border of the state of Sinaloa.

Cambior has the option to earn a 50-70% interest from Lusimin by completing work commitments and making certain cash payments.