The 11 m (36 ft) thick gold-enhanced oxide-layer 15 m (50 ft) deep is completely uneconomic because:
(1) The grades and thicknesses are erratic. From the northwest end of the 300 m (1,000 ft) wide gossan zone over the 500 m (1,600 ft) length to the southeast end the grades vary from .015 ot .24 oz/t and from 4 to 18 m thick. (complete assay results below)
(2) The highest grades (holes 6 to 21 above) are in the north-west 1/2 of the zone under the town of Tambo-Grande (population 10,000) and it would cost at least 5 million to re-settle the 5,000 people (5,000 X $10,000/each = $5 million).
(3) Because the thickness varies from 4 to 18 m (13 to 58 ft) it would be very difficult to blast and remove the gold layer without including a lot of unmineralized rock which would considerably lower the grade.
(4) The strip-ratio would be 1.5:1 to 4:1 which is very high for a bulk-tonnage gold operation.
(5) Without moving 5,000 people the total reserves = 200,000 ozs of gold (value = $50 mil). If the town were moved only 500,000 ounces of gold (value = $125 mil) could be extracted.
(6) The gold is restricted to the gossan area above the massive sulphides. (Manhattan's current drilling is outside this zone)
With gold at $260/oz the gold reserves are too small and low grade to be economic and the overlying town is just an added factor that ensures the project is completely uneconomic.
**Assay results from north-west to south-east along the 500 m (1,600 ft) long zone:
Hole 6 = .15 oz/t gold, 2 oz/t silver / 17 m (55 ft)
Hole 1 = .15, 1.5 / 18 m (58 ft)
Hole 4 = .2, 3 / 4 m (13 ft)
Hole 3 = .15, 6 / 9 m (29 ft)
Hole 17 = .2, .6 / 4 m (13 ft)
Hole 18 = .08, 4 / 15 m (50 ft)
Hole 19 = .1, 1 / 11 m (36 ft)
Hole 7 = .02, .9 / 14 m (46 ft)
Hole 16 = .6, 2.5 / 5 m (16 ft)
Hole 9 = .24, .9 / 8 m (26 ft)
Hole 21 = .15, 5 / 14 m (46 ft)
Hole 20 = .18, 1 / 10 m (32 ft)
Hole 10 = .015, .3 / 16 m (52 ft)
Hole 13 = .1, .25 / 9 m (29 ft)
Hole 11 = .2, 16 / 14 m (46 ft)
Hole 12 = .2, 1 / 5 m (16 ft) |
