Vancouver — Drilling along the 2.2-km-long main Dolores zone has enhanced the economic prospects of the large gold system in Mexico’s Chihuahua state.
In the latest resource model, Minefinders increased the tonnage in the measured category by 32.6% while increasing the amount of contained gold by 34%.
Based on a cutoff grade of 0.6 oz. gold-equivalent per tonne, the preliminary measured resource is believed to be about 24.4 million tonnes grading 1.26 grams gold and 62.4 grams silver per tonne. Increasing the cutoff to 3 grams gold-equivalent results in a resource estimate of 3.8 million tonnes grading 4.1 grams gold and 176.7 grams silver.
In the measured and indicated section, the resource totals 50.8 million tonnes grading 1.26 grams gold and 61.4 grams silver. At a higher cutoff of 3 grams, the resource becomes 7.9 million tonnes grading 4.01 grams gold and 166.9 grams silver.
A further 21.9 million tonnes grading 1.29 grams gold and 56.8 grams silver sit in the inferred section. Using a 3-gram gold-equivalent cutoff, the resource averages 3.15 million tonnes grading 4.07 grams gold and 151.4 grams silver.
A final resource model will be released with a feasibility study.
Prior results suggested that the overall resource was 65.4 million tonnes grading 1.13 grams gold and 65.7 grams silver, based on a cutoff grade of 0.6 gram gold-equivalent.
The measured and indicated portion alone stood at 43 million tonnes grading 1.16 grams gold and 67.9 grams silver, equivalent to 1.6 million oz. gold and 93.8 million oz. silver. The inferred category contained 22.5 million tonnes grading 1.07 grams gold and 61.6 grams silver, or 772,000 oz. gold and 44.5 million oz. silver. The cutoff grade used a silver-to-gold ratio of 75-to-1.
The Dolores project is in the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental range, 250 km west of the city of Chihuahua. It can be reached by a 4-hour drive along 90 km of logging roads from the town of Madera (population 35,000). A small local landing strip is close by.
The deposit is a low-sulphide, epithermal, quartz-adularia-sericite system structurally controlled by northwest-striking, high-angle shear zones. The mineralized trend occurs in a series of volcanic rocks dominated by andesite flows, flow breccias and tuffs conformably overlain by felsic volcaniclastics and intercalated latitic flow rocks.
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