Latin American focus for Golden News

To reflect its commitment to Latin American exploration, Golden News Resources (TSE) has changed its name to Laminco Resources.

The company has completed a 56-hole, 15,000-ft. reverse-circulation drill program on its San Antonio property, 100 miles east of Hermosillo in Mexico’s Sonora state.

A preliminary evaluation of the target’s bulk-tonnage potential has led to a second 15,000-ft. program, concentrating on the Mina Grande and California gold zones.

The Mina Grande is a series of stacked, shallow-dipping, mineralized structures within metamorphosed sedimentary rocks and igneous intrusives, with total thickness exceeding 150 ft. Higher-grade portions of the ore were mined at the turn of the century by underground methods.

The first phase of drilling, within an area measuring 780 ft. east-west and 750 ft. north-south, returned the following intervals: 70 ft. of 0.058 oz. gold per ton for hole 44; 45 ft. of 0.078 oz. for hole 46; and 40 ft. of 0.11 oz. for hole 47. The zone remains open in all directions.

The second phase, already under way, will test the eastern extension, which lies within the Trion zone. A 1,600-ft.-long geochemical anomaly, this zone exhibits minor amounts of copper mineralization.

The California zone is a low-temperature, epithermal deposit hosted in sedimentary rocks and traced on surface in an east-west direction for a length greater than 1,500 ft., with widths of up to 200 ft. From the 400 ft. of strike length drilled to date, significant intersections include 355 ft. of 0.044 oz. for hole 28; 255 ft. of 0.056 oz. for hole 29; 185 ft. of 0.08 oz. for hole 30; and 120 ft. of 0.072 oz. for hole 37. The deposit remains open on strike and at depth, and may repeat itself to the south. Elsewhere on the 50-sq.-mile concession, Golden News expects its Luz del Cobre copper project to enter production by May. Extensive underground workings are being prepared for the in situ operation, which entails injecting a weakly acidic leaching solution through a set of small-diameter holes drilled from surface in a triangular grid pattern. The leached copper mineralization is collected in a series of underground drifts and crosscuts. Initially, the company intends to recover copper sulphate until it can afford to install an electrowinning section to its processing plant. The capital cost of this first phase of development is estimated at US$2.5 million. Initial copper production is forcast at 10,000-14,000 lb. per day, which is expected to double by the second year. Annual production is expected to reach 10.9 million lb. by the third year at an operating cost of US36 cents per lb. Reserves are estimated at 13.5 million tons grading 0.46% copper, with a mine life projected at 15 years.

Golden News has 23 million common shares outstanding. President Kelsey Boltz says working capital is sufficient both to finance the $500,000 exploration program currently under way and complete development of the Luz del Cobre copper project.