Aurizon expands resource at Hosco

Drilling in the last three quarters of 2010 and January 2011 has boosted by 31% the in-pit measured and indicated resource at Aurizon Mines‘ (ARZ-T, AZK-X) Hosco deposit, part of the gold producer’s Joanna project in northwestern Quebec.

At a cut-off grade of 0.5 gram gold per tonne, in-pit measured and indicated resources at Hosco have jumped by 537,000 ounces to 2.25 million ounces of gold, the company reports. In-pit inferred resources measure 284,000 ounces of gold, a drop of 97,000 ounces from the previous resource estimate of July 2010.

Hosco’s measured and indicated resources now stand at 54.14 million tonnes grading 1.29 grams gold per tonne, while inferred resources add 7.67 million tonnes grading 1.15 grams gold.

The new resource figures will be incorporated into Aurizon’s upcoming feasibility study, which will be completed in the third quarter of this year.

The company has already started its environmental impact study and a report is anticipated before the end of 2011.

The feasibility study will incorporate the new resource estimate for Hosco, along with results from metallurgical pilot tests, a geotechnical study, and updated capital and operating cost estimates.

Mineralization at Aurizon’s 100%-owned Joanna project, 20 km east of Rouyn-Noranda, is “closely related” to the east-west Cadillac fault and “forms a 200-metre-wide corridor composed of different mineralised lenses parallel to the fault, dipping 55 degrees to the north,” the company notes in a press release.

The mineralization is located within three main lenses, one to the north of the fault and the other two to the south of the fault, and each one demonstrates a thickness of between 15 and 60 metres, with variable lateral extensions of between 300 and 700 metres.

Drilling this year will focus on step-out holes on 50-metre spacing along the 2.5 km strike length of the project’s Heva deposit, which is about 3 km west of the proposed Hosco pit. Two to three rigs have been active there for the first five months of this year and assay results are pending, the company says.

In Toronto at presstime Aurizon was trading at $5.26 per share within a 52-week range of $4.87 (July 5 2010) and $8.41 (Nov. 9 2010). The company has about 162.4 million shares outstanding.