Tumi gives up on Cinco Minas (June 13, 2005)

Vancouver — Tumi Resources (TM-V) has decided to throw in the towel at the Cinco Minas silver-gold project after three drilling programs and economic assessments of underground and open-pit options proved hopeless.

The Cinco Minas property is situated in Mexico’s Jalisco state and Tumi had the option of earning a 60% interest in the project from Minera San Jorge.

Drilling by Tumi intersected bonanza grades — that when combined with other drill results — enhanced the project’s open-pit potential. Tumi notes, however, that its work also confirmed the project’s unusually high stripping ratio for an open-pit operation. Standing in the way of underground mining was a large number of open stopes from historic mining, which when added to high holding costs, rendered the project uneconomic.

Based on three phases of drilling in 2003 and 2004, an independent resource estimate for Cinco Minas pegged the indicated resource at 2.27 million tonnes of 171.9 grams silver and 1.22 grams gold per tonne for 12.5 million contained oz. silver and 89,100 oz. gold. An inferred resource of 400,000 tonnes grading 137.9 grams silver and 1.07 grams gold contain another 1.8 million oz. silver and 13,800 oz. gold.

The Cinco Minas project includes the historic underground El Abra high-grade silver-gold mine, and other prospective targets along a 5-km belt. The El Abra mine, originally developed in the early 1920s, was shut down a decade later. The property lay dormant until July 2002 when Tumi entered a joint venture with Minera San Jorge.

Tumi will focus its efforts on evaluating the open-pit potential of the La Trini silver-gold project in the Hostotipaquillo mining district, some 100 km northwest of Guadalahara, Mexico. The area is underlain by the Tertiary Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic province and younger intrusive rocks.