New resource estimates for two of four deposits at Sunridge Gold’s (SGC-V, SGCNF-O) Asmara project show a significant increase in size, the company says.
A new National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate for the Adi Nefas high-grade zinc-gold-copper volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit, and the coppergold Debarwa VMS deposit, brings most of the resources in both deposits into the indicated category.
Debarwa has a rich supergene copper zone of 1.3 million tonnes averaging 5.36% copper using a 1% copper cutoff and containing 158 million lbs. copper in the indicated category.
The deep primary zone at Debarwa, which is open at depth, contains 699,000 indicated tonnes grading 2.53% copper and 3.23% zinc for 39 million lbs. copper and 49.8 million lbs. zinc, also using a 1% cutoff.
The average grade of the primary zone at the Adi Nefas deposit, meanwhile, which holds 2.7 million tonnes at a 2% zinc cutoff, has increased to 8.38% zinc, 2.85 gram gold and 99.36 grams silver, containing 504 million lbs. zinc, 250,000 oz. gold and 9 million oz. silver.
The new estimates bring the total combined metal at Asmara in the indicated category to 2.3 billion lbs. zinc, 1 billion lbs. copper, 872,000 oz. gold and 27 million oz. silver.
Adding up the numbers, that’s worth about US$7 billion, compared with the company’s market cap of just under C$75 million, says Greg Davis, Sunridge’s Vancouverbased vice-president of business development.
“We’ve only began exploring our properties four years ago and we have numerous high-priority targets yet to go — large showings the size of a city block and large gravity anomalies,” Davis says. “It’s a very rich property.”
Debarwa is about 30 km south and Adi Nefas is about 8 km north of the capital city of Asmara. Both have road, power, and water access and are just 120 km from an international port.
Lundin Mining (LUN-T, LMC-N) holds an 18.5% stake in Sunridge.
Davis notes that Eritrea enjoys a favourable mining environment and cites the experiences of Nevsun Resources (NSU-T, NSU-X). Nevsun received its mining licence for its high-grade gold, copper and zinc Bisha project in western Eritrea within five years of discovering it.
“It’s exceptional to go from initial discovery hole to mining permits in that period of time when you think of all the steps involved,” Davis says. “That’s incredible — you won’t see that in places like Canada or Mexico.”
The mining code is based on the mining code of the Northern Territories of Australia with a royalty of 5% on precious metal, 3% on base metals and a tax rate of 35%, the company says.
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