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Atico Mining announced results from the ongoing infill drilling program at its 90-percent-owned El Roble mine in Colombia. The company has so far drilled 11,740 meters of core and expanded the high-grade zone 200 meters below the current operating level.
Drill Tracker Weekly highlights drilling results in context with our database of over 10,000 drilling and trenching results. The purpose of this report is to highlight drilling and trenching results that stand out from the pack and compare them to their peer group. This report does not constitute initiation of coverage or a recommendation.
Price: $0.52
Market cap: $50.7 million
Cash estimate: $4.7 million
Project: El Roble
Country: Colombia
Ownership: 60 percent
Resources: 1.58 million tonnes at 4.45 percent copper, 3.17 g/t gold inferred
Project status: Operating mine
- Atico Mining announced results from the ongoing infill drilling program at its 90-percent-owned El Roble mine in Colombia. Since acquiring the option to gain the 90-percent position in the operating mine, the company has drilled 11,740 meters of core and expanded the high-grade zone 200 meters below the current operating level.
- Highlights from infill drilling include: 86.4 meters grading 5.04 percent copper and 3.71 g/t gold, as well as 116 meters of 3.05 percent copper and 2.38 gold. The Zeus mineralization is hosted within massive VMS-type (volcanogenic massive sulfide) mineralization. The company estimates that the true width of the intervals is approximately 76 to 83 percent of the reported drill intervals.
- The company is currently developing a new adit on the 1,800 level, 200 meters below the existing operation, to access the new high-grade mineralization. Since exercising its option, the company has initiated a program to expand the throughput capacity from 400 to 650 tonnes per day. The commissioning of the new crushing equipment is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter.
- In June 2013, the company completed an initial 43-101 resource estimate on the mine, outlining 1.58 million tonnes grading 4.45 percent copper, 3.17 g/t gold and 11.3 g/t silver using a 0.72 percent copper equivalent cut-off grade and metals prices of $3.59 copper and $1,472 gold. Although the 43-101 does not report resources at different metals prices and the metals prices used in the resource would be considered high in today’s market, the contained metal does not appear to be overly sensitive to cut-off grades. The report indicates that when the copper equivalent cut off is increased to 2 percent, the contained metal drops less than 10 percent.
Development history: Over 22 years the mine has produced 1.5 million tonnes at an average estimated grade of 2.6 percent copper, 2.5 g/t gold; Atico acquired a 90-percent interest in the project in November 2014
Current holes: 86.4 meters at 5.04 percent copper, 3.71 g/t gold; 116.6 meters at 3.05 percent copper, 2.38 g/t gold
Disclosure: I, Wayne Hewgill certify that the information in this report is sourced through public documents that are believed to be reliable but accuracy and completeness as represented in this report cannot be guaranteed. The author has not received payment from any of the companies covered in this report.
This report makes not recommendations to buy sell or hold.
Wayne Hewgill is a geologist with extensive knowledge of the global mining industry gained through 30 years of diversified experience in mineral exploration and new business development in Canada, as well as 10 years living in Africa, New Zealand and Australia. He was previously senior research officer at BHP Billiton, an executive with an exploration company working in Argentina and a mining analyst at three Vancouver-based financial groups where he developed the Drill Tracker database in 2006. He holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of British Columbia and is registered as a Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo) with APEGBC.
