Columbus bulks up gold resources at Paul Isnard

Columbus Gold (CGT-V) recently updated the inferred resource estimate for its wholly owned Paul Isnard gold project in northwestern French Guiana, with ounces growing 184% from before.  

The project’s main deposit, Montagne d’Or, now hosts 5.37 million inferred oz. from 117.1 million tonnes averaging 1.43 grams gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.3 gram. This marks a significant increase over the 2012 estimate of 1.9 million oz. from 36.7 million tonnes of 1.6 grams, at a cut-off grade of 0.40 gram. Even at a higher cut-off grade of 1 gram gold, the deposit contains 4.15 million oz. gold.  

The recent boost came after the Vancouver-based junior completed 45 holes or 15,800 metres in its first phase of drilling on the project. The program started in late 2011 and ended in August 2012. Columbus published the resource, prepared by Toronto-based Coffey Mining, on Feb. 5, 2013.

“Phase 1 drilling has clearly demonstrated that the Montagne d’Or gold deposit has both large scale and good grade,” the company’s CEO Robert Giustra said, noting the “deposit has potential to grow.”

Columbus is contemplating a second drill program to expand the deposit along strike and at depth and possibly upgrade all or some of the inferred resource to the indicated category.

Montagne d’Or has been roughly outlined across a 2 km strike length and to a depth of 100-150 metres from surface. The company describes the deposit as an east-west striking, south dipping, tabular body consisting of two sub-parallel gold zones – Upper Felsic and Lower Favorable – within laminated felsic volcanic rocks.

Currently, the junior’s field crew is collecting soil samples to get a better sense of the undrilled gold-in-soil anomalies on the project. That program should cover a strike length of 7 km east-west along the main deposit’s mineralized trend and 4 km going north-south. The crew will also sample an IP geophysical anomaly occurring 500 metres to the south of Montagne d’Or.

According to a 2012 technical report, the Paul Isnard project is in a relatively remote area with little infrastructure. It’s about 180 km west of the capital, Cayenne, and 80 km south of the department capital, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.

The project comprises eight mining claims totalling 135 sq. km and one pending application for an exclusive exploitation permit covering 14 sq. km.  Most of the 149 sq. km gold project, including the Montagne d’Or deposit, sits in an area where both underground and open pit mining is allowed under the new mining law that came into effect on January 1, 2012.