Francisco Gold completes geophysical program in Marlin
Francisco Gold Corp FGX
Shares issued 15,355,425 2000-12-21 close $4.55
Thursday Dec 21 2000 News Release
Mr. P. Randy Reifel reports
Francisco Gold has reported that substantial progress has been made this year on the bankable feasibility study for the El Sauzal gold project in Mexico. The feasibility study is being prepared by M3 Engineering and Technology Corp. of Tucson, Ariz., and Golder Associates Ltd. of Denver, Colo. Major engineering and development tasks that are nearly complete include the tailings pond and plant site locations, slope stability studies and routing of the production road.
Early next year, geotechnical drilling and a bulk metallurgical sampling program will be undertaken for the final engineering of the open pit mine slopes and mill design. Comprehensive environmental, socioeconomic and water management studies are also in progress for mine certification requirements. The state governments of both Chihuahua and Sinaloa strongly support the development of El Sauzal and have tentatively agreed to subsidize the construction of the main mine road and connecting hydro infrastructure.
The bankable feasibility study is being engineered as a 6,000 tonne per day open pit mine based upon the existing oxide gold reserves of 2.03 million ounces at a grade of 3.01 grams per tonne. Despite the current low gold price, El Sauzal is a robust project. The high-grade ore, low stripping ratio and excellent metallurgy are expected to produce gold in the first two years at a cash cost of less than $70 (U.S.) per ounce. Advanced engineering work further indicates that the capital expenditure to build the open pit mine will be 25 per cent to 30 per cent lower than the $138.7-million (U.S.) estimated in the prefeasibility level study. The bankable feasibility study is scheduled to be completed by late 2001.
Marlin exploration update
Francisco has now completed ten additional diamond drill holes totalling 993 metres on its Marlin gold-silver property located in Western Guatemala. The step-out drill program targeted the west and southwest extension of the main zone. The core samples have been sent to Chemex Labs in Vancouver, B.C., with assay results expected in mid-January.
The recent drilling has potentially increased the main zone's mineralization by a minimum of 150 metres to the southwest and 125 metres to the south. This drilling has confirmed the existence of an east-west trending feeder fault system that appears to control both the high-grade mineralization of the main zone, as well as the corridor of intense argillic alteration that extends for two to three kilometres on each side of the main zone.
Twenty geophysical survey lines have now covered an area of 1.2 kilometres by one kilometre centered across the main zone. High resistivity anomalies, indicative of silicification, correlated strongly with zones of mineralization identified in the previous drilling. A continuous southwest-northeast trending high resistivity anomaly follows the Don Tello-Don Pancho zone from the main zone for some 800 metres to the southwest. Another broad, high-resistivity anomaly has also been defined towards the Los Cochis zone, over 500 metres northwest of the main zone. Further work including detailed geological mapping, geophysics, trenching and diamond drilling will resume early next year to determine the extent of mineralization at Marlin.
Further to a Stockwatch news report dated Aug. 11, 2000, (NR-05), Francisco has now completed the acquisition of Montana Gold Corp. Francisco is well-financed with a treasury of $34-million and as a result of the Montana acquisition, has 16.36 million common shares issued.
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