Vancouver — Halfway through a 40,000-metre drill program,
So far, the company has sunk 132 drill holes (22,650 metres) on the property. Highlights, all from the D zone, include the following:
q hole 43 — 3.6 metres (at a down-hole depth of 35.5 metres) grading 5.8 grams gold per tonne and 0.3% copper;
q hole 45 — 1.5 metres (at 41 metres) grading 10.1 grams gold, plus, farther down-hole, a 1-metre section of 14.7 grams gold followed by other intersections of 5-6 grams gold over 0.5-1 metre;
q hole 50 — 1.5 metres (at 20 metres down-hole) assaying 54 grams gold and 0.3% copper.
Drilling was also carried out on the Highwall zone, where the following values were reported:
q hole 36 — 9.4 metres (from 260 metres) grading 13.1 grams gold and 1% copper, including a 3-metre high-grade section averaging 35.2 grams gold and 1.5% copper, and, farther down-hole, a 0.8-metre interval of 3% copper;
q hole 43 — 7.6 metres (from 217 metres) of 15.8 grams gold and 0.8% copper, including 3 metres of 38.2 grams gold and 0.6% copper.
The gold mineralization occurs in the sheared and altered Copperstone fault zone, within a volcano-sedimentary sequence.
Previous operator Cyprus Minerals (now part of
In 1999, the C and D zones were estimated to have a total indicated resource of 809,000 tonnes grading 11 grams gold per tonne (the calculation is not compliant with National Instrument 43-101 standards). An inferred resource of 1.08 million tonnes grading 12 grams gold was also reported.
American Bonanza expects to make a production decision on Copperstone in 2005.
The company has announced plans to merge with
One of these, the advanced-stage Fenelon project in Quebec’s Casa Berardi camp, is undergoing test mining.
American Bonanza has 188 million shares outstanding, which translates into a market capitalization of $36 million. The stock recently traded at 19.
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