Aurcana Commences Open Pit Mining at Shafter
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - June 6, 2012) - Aurcana Corporation (AUN.V - News)(AUNFF - News) ("Aurcana" or the "Company") is pleased to report that in conjunction with its current underground operations, the Company has initiated some open pit mining commencing on April 23, 2012 from the Mina Grande Pit located on the historic Presidio Mine on strike, west of the Company's Shafter mine.
To date a total of 4,725 tons have been mined and processed from a historic dump and open pit operations with a combined average grade of 2.2 ounces Ag per ton. The materials from both dump and open pit operations were processed together and not processed separately to determine the average grade from each of the dump and open pit operations A total of 3,813 (80.7%) tons were derived from the Mina Grande open pit and 912 (19.3%) tons came from historic material from the East Shaft Dump. In-house assay results from the first two dore bar pours indicated a silver content of 78.77% and gold content of 11.14% Au and 84.37% Ag and .06% Au, respectively. These assay results have not been independently tested and verified.
Historic workings of the Mina Grande open pit were surveyed and chip sampled on four levels to a depth of 80 feet and assayed to determine the extent and grade of the mineralized area. Based the encouraging preliminary indications, the Company intends to continue to conduct further operations on the Mina Grande open pit to further evaluate its potential. The Company is unable to forecast future results based on materials mined and processed to date or otherwise determine if these current results will be indicative of the results to be obtained from future mining operations on the underground and open pit.
Samples were dried and reduced to 10 mesh. A 300 gram sub sample was obtained, pulverized to 95% passing 200 mesh by ring and puck pulverizer. Silver and gold were determined by Fire Assay with gravimetric finish using a 30 gm prepared sub sample.
Dore samples were analyzed for Au and Ag by Fire Assay and Gravimetric finish.
The mineralized potential of Mina Grande Pit is uncertain at this time and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the Mina Grande Pit being delineated as a mineral resource. The Company is not treating these results as current mineral resources or reserves. The Company has not undertaken any independent investigation of the open pit plan. The Company believes the initial results provide a conceptual indication of the potential of the mineral occurrences within the Mina Grande open pit.
Corporate
The Company's shares are now also traded in the United States on OTCQX under the symbol "AUNFF". Investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on www.otcqx.com and www.otcmarkets.com.
About Aurcana Corporation:
Aurcana has forecasted its Shafter Silver Mine to produce 3.8 million ounces of silver in the first full 12 months of operation. It has an NI 43-101 Measured and Indicated Resource of 24.6 million ounces of silver and an Inferred Resource of 22.8 million ounces of silver using a 4.0 ounce per ton cut off. The 99.9% owned La Negra silver-lead-zinc-copper mine produced over 1 million ounces of contained silver in 2011 and 287,486 ounces for Q1 2012. For further information, visit the website at http://www.aurcana.com
The reader should be cautioned that the Company has not completed a feasibility study to confirm the projected production capacity for La Negra and there is no certainty the Company's plans will be economically viable.
The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed by Ken Collison, P.Eng, Director of the Company and a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects).
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AURCANA CORPORATION
Lenic Rodriguez,
President & CEO
Contact:
(604) 331-9333 or Toll Free: (866) 532-9333
Aurcana Corporation
(604) 633-9179 (FAX)
Gary Lindsey
Aurcana Corporation
Corporate Relations
(720)-273-6224
gary@strata-star.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/aurcana-commences-open-pit-mining-160800935.html
Dan  |
