It’s been a busy few days for Belo Sun Mining (BSX-T). On Monday the Toronto-based junior adopted a shareholder rights plan, followed on Wednesday with an updated resource estimate for the two deposits in Brazil that make up its flagship Volta Grande project.
The shareholder rights plan or poison pill is not in response to any specific take-over bid, the company says. Under the rights plan, shareholders in the company can purchase shares at a 50% discount to the market should an investor attempt to acquire more than 20% of the company.
When Belo Sun Mining started working on Volta Grande a few years ago, estimated resources stood at about 715,000 ounces of gold grading 1.1 grams gold per tonne in the indicated category and about 1.39 million ounces of gold averaging less than 1.1 grams gold in the inferred.
Today the Volta project has measured and indicated resources of 53.1 million tonnes grading 1.69 grams gold per tonne for 2.88 million ounces of contained gold and inferred resources of 39.67 million tonnes grading 1.63 grams gold for 2.09 million ounces of contained gold. The new estimate was based on a cut-off grade of 0.5 gram gold per tonne.
Helio Diniz, the company’s vice president exploration, noted in a prepared statement that both the Ouro Verde and Grota Seca deposits remain open at depth and along strike, and that the latest resource update was achieved at an average cost of US$12 per oz. gold.
The company says it expects to complete another resource update in the third quarter of this year along with a preliminary feasibility study, and finish a definitive feasibility study in 2013.
In Toronto the company’s shares closed at 95¢ apiece, up 7¢ or 8% on the day, with 1.8 million shares trading hands.
Belo Sun Mining has about 210 million shares outstanding.
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