Rio Narcea joins Outokumpu in Spain (December 20, 2002)

Rio Narcea Gold Mines (RNG-T) has agreed to a phased earn-in at Finnish-based Outokumpu‘s Lugo properties in northern Spain.

Rio Narcea can earn an initial half-stake in the project by spending US$1.5 million on exploration by Dec. 20, 2004. It can then boost its position by 10% by spending an additional US$1.5 million on exploration over one year and paying US$750,000 in cash, and then to 70% by completing a bankable feasibility study.

The Lugo properties cover 387 sq. km in the Galicia and Leon regions in northwestern Spain. The properties include the 82-sq.-km Carla Group property, 90 km west of Rio’s El Valle gold mine, in the centre of the Malpica gold belt.

The Carla Group is home to six major airborne magnetic anomalies along a regional, north-trending fault system that extends for 18 km across the property. The principle target is the Villalba occurrence, which was the site of Roman workings that exploited an epithermal gold system hosted in a 200-metre-thick section of limestone and dolomite.

The Villalba system stretches some 2 km along strike and averages more than 500 metres in width. Float samples of jasperoid from the margins of the porphyry intrusive run up to 46 grams gold per tonne.

Under way is a reconnaissance soil geochemical survey aimed at assessing the regional potential of the project.