Capstone Cuts More Copper And Gold At Minto Open Pit

Capstone Mining (CS-T, CSFFF-O) has reported promising results from drilling at its Minto copper-gold-silver mine in the Yukon.

The latest batch includes 21 holes south of the Minto open pit. Of these, 15 holes are from infill drilling on the Ridgetop deposit, five holes are from area 118, and one is an exploration hole.

From the Ridgetop deposit, the highest-grade gold was intersected in hole 441, which cut 8.1 metres of 7.8 grams gold per tonne, 18 grams silver and 2.7% copper from a depth of 73 metres. Other results included: 16.8 metres of 1.22% copper, 0.51 gram gold and 4 grams silver in hole 432; 15 metres of 1.09% copper, 0.51 gram gold and 3.7 grams silver in hole 440 and 11.3 metres of 1.83% copper, 0.91 gram gold and 6.9 grams silver in hole 444. Hole 415 cut 7 metres of 1.3 grams gold, 11 grams silver and 2.5% copper. The mineralization was found at depths of 70-100 metres, but mineralization in hole 440 started at 36 metres.

The company also highlights two holes out of six drilled on the Minto North zone. Hole 456 cut 3% copper over 33 metres, and hole 454 intersected 2.3% copper over 30 metres.

Results from drilling in area 118 returned some mineralization, but it is not considered high priority. This year, Capstone drilled 86 holes totalling 15,000 metres, and it plans to drill another 9,000 metres, focusing on Minto North, with a resource estimate for Minto North anticipated by year-end.

A past-producing mine, Minto started production again in 2007 under Sherwood Mining, which subsequently merged with Capstone.

Besides Minto, Capstone also operates the Cozamin mine in Mexico, where it mines copper, silver, zinc and lead.

Capstone has 165 million shares outstanding, or 179 million shares fully diluted. At presstime, the shares were trading at $2.28. The shares have been trading in a range of 65¢-$4.47 over the past 12 months.

The company recently closed a bought-deal private placement of 27 million shares at $1.85 apiece for $50 million.