TVI pours gold at Canatuan in Philippines

Vancouver — TVI Pacific (TVI-T) has poured its first gold-silver dor bar at the rehabilitated Canatuan oxide plant in southwestern Philippines.

The plant, operating at 50 tonnes per day, is initially using stockpiled tailings as millfeed. The throughput rate is being ramped up in staged intervals, with TVI envisioning a 500-tonne-per-day operation within two years.

Situated in Zamboanga del Norte, the project has long been plagued by local violence. In late December 2002, members of the Canatuan indigenous Subanen community, including women, children and TVI employees, were ambushed on a provincial road linking the Canatuan mine site to the town of Siocon. Thirteen people were killed and 12 others were injured in the shooting. Among the dead were two TVI employees hired to provide security to the project area and its inhabitants.

It was the second ambush in the area during the year. In March, two security guards employed by TVI were killed near the property.

The project hosts an open-pit reserve of 1.1 million tonnes grading 3.77 grams gold and 105.7 grams silver per tonne in the oxide zone and 1.51 million tonnes grading 1.31 grams gold and 62.14 grams silver, plus 2.79% copper and 2% zinc, in the sulphide portion.

Moving north to the Philippine island of Panay, Mindoro Resources (MIO-V) has failed to replicate the encouraging drill results cut last year at its Pan de Azucar copper-gold project.

A 1,041-metre drill program in 2001 intersected up to 37.1 metres grading 0.8% copper and 1.87 grams gold at the Valderama pyritic sulphide zone.

The latest program followed up on those the results, but lower grades were encountered. The best results came from hole 12, which yielded 32.3 metres grading 0.59 gram gold and 36.3% sulphur.

Some 700 metres to the west, the junior sunk a 45-metre hole into the Asparin Hill target. It intersected intensely altered dacitic rocks characteristic of porphyry copper systems, but no signficant values were encountered.

The results have prompted the Edmonton-based company to shift its attention to the Archangel project, on the island of Luzon. The project hosts two gold-bearing zones, known as Kay Tanda and Pulang Lupa, within a 5-by-2-km zone of highly altered volcanics.

Previous drilling in the late 1980s and mid-1990s defined an inferred resource of 8.3 million tonnes averaging 0.68 gram gold at Kay Tanda.

A newly completed independent study over the prospect pegged the inferred resource at 17 million tonnes grading 0.68 gram gold and 2.48 grams silver. Some 6.3 million tonnes grading 0.48 gram gold and 4.4 grams silver lie in the oxide zone, with 10.7 million tonnes grading 0.79 gram gold and 1.3 grams silver placed in the underlying sulphide zone.

Mindoro can earn a 51% stake in the property by spending US$1.5 million over three years and issuing 500,000 shares to a privately held Philippine company.

It can then earn an additional 24% by issuing another 500,000 shares and taking the project to the feasibility stage. On completion of a feasibility study, the private company gets a further 500,000 shares.