Look-alikes give credibility to Exeter's big gold potential
Cash positive junior explorer Exeter Resource Corp is progressing well with its big Chilean Caspiche gold/copper project and its Cerro Moro gold/silver one in Argentina - both of which have parallels in developing and operating mines close by.
Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted: Friday , 06 Mar 2009
LONDON -
mineweb.com
Speaking to Mineweb in London, Bryce Roxburgh, CEO of Exeter Resource Corporation, pointed to the major parallels between the company's big Caspiche gold/copper porphyry project in Chile and the nearby Cerro Casale mine being developed by Barrick and Kinross - and also to the similarities between the company's high grade Cerro Moro gold project in Argentina and AngloGold's Cerro Vanguardia mine located southwest of Cerro Moro.
Caspiche is located almost exactly midway between the Barrick/Kinross Cerro Casale operations and Kinross's El Refugio mine. Exeter tends to point to the similarities between Caspiche and Cerro Casale because of similarities in size and grades defined by preliminary drilling activities to date and it is planned to announce a drill indicated Inferred Resource for the property in the second quarter of this year. Already the company is talking about and 8 million ounces plus gold project with significant copper grades which would further boost the income potential of the operation. While this is still well short of Cerro Casale's 25 million ounce gold resource, Caspiche still has substantial potential for expansion. So far Exeter has undertaken 16,000 metres of drilling on the property and three rigs continue to operate on site. The aim is to produce a NI 43-101 resource estimate in the second quarter.
Caspiche was originally part of an area held by Anglo American and was dormant for ten years prior to its acquisition by Exeter. Any mine on the property would be of a size and cost which would require very major investment and it is no secret that Exeter is talking to a number of companies which are interested enough in the property to be studying it with a potential to taking it on to production. The gold price is certainly conducive to this, but finance could be a problem, even for a major, in the current climate. Any mine would probably start as an open pit, but to fulfill the deposit's full potential it would be likely to require an underground bulk mining method to be employed as the operation goes deeper.
Cerro Moro in Argentina's less mining-unfriendly state of Santa Cruz, would be a totally different proposition from Caspiche. Here some very good gold grades (measured in places in ounces per ton) plus good silver grades, all at relatively shallow depth, suggest a possible low cost operation with a very rapid payback. In many ways the deposits at Cerro Moro are similar to Anglo American's Cerro Vanguardia where mining is from a series of relatively small open pits following the gold/silver vein trend lines.
At Cerro Moro Exeter has outlined an extensive gold/silver vein system with 500 drill holes to date. Metallurgical testing suggests very high gold and silver recoveries. Exeter is looking to define a plus 2 million ounce gold resource and is also on target for defining an NI 43-101 compliant resource during the second quarter of the current year.
Exeter is well funded and thus, while looking for partners is not therefore vulnerable to accepting offers at any cost. It has a potential low production cost, a quick-to-develop, gold project in Argentina with, Roxburgh reckons, payback potential inside a year from commencement of production, and a more long term very large resource in Chile , as well as some other promising exploration concessions. It is not yet close to a production decision, but examining its options and looks more likely to bring in outside companies to develop its projects than go it alone - even on the smaller scale Cerro Moro property. |
