Golden Reign Resources (GRR-V) July 24, '14 is pleased to provide an updated mineral resource estimate for the San Albino Gold Deposit on its 100% owned San Albino-Murra Property located in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua. The resource estimate was prepared by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. ("P&E") of Brampton, Ontario, and updates the previous resource estimate prepared by P&E in November 2012.
Resource Estimate Highlights:
- a 67% increase in Indicated resources, from an initial 95,000 gold equivalent ("AuEq") ounces to 158,800 AuEq ounces at 5.97 g/t contained in 827,000 tonnes
- a 8.5% increase in Inferred resources, from 805,000 AuEq ounces to 873,300 AuEq ounces at 7.97 g/t contained in 3,410,000 tonnes
- new El Jobo mineralized zone identified and included in open-pittable resources
- the San Albino Gold Deposit is near-surface, within 300 metres vertical depth, and remains open along strike in both directions and at depth
Total Resources
| Zone | Classification | Tonnes | Au (g/t) | Au ounces | Ag (g/t) | Ag ounces | AuEq (g/t) | AuEq Ounces | | Oxide | Indicated | 764,000 | 5.64 | 138,600 | 9.8 | 241,000 | 5.75 | 141,300 | | Inferred | 857,000 | 4.72 | 130,100 | 7.5 | 208,000 | 4.81 | 132,500 | | Fresh | Indicated | 63,000 | 8.50 | 17,200 | 11.7 | 24,000 | 8.67 | 17,500 | | Inferred | 2,553,000 | 8.83 | 724,900 | 12.9 | 1,061,000 | 9.02 | 740,800 | | Total | Indicated | 827,000 | 5.86 | 155,800 | 10.0 | 265,000 | 5.97 | 158,800 | | Inferred | 3,410,000 | 7.80 | 855,000 | 11.6 | 1,269,000 | 7.97 | 873,300 |
Mineral Resource Estimate Notes and Parameters:
- Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources estimated will be converted into Mineral Reserves;
- The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues, although the Company is not aware of any such issues;
- The quantity and grade of reported Inferred resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred resources as an Indicated or Measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured mineral resource category.
- Gold Equivalent was calculated on the basis of 1 gram gold = 64 grams silver.
The 2014 mineral resource estimate update categorizes resources as either In-Pit (open-pittable) and Out-of-Pit (underground).
In-Pit Resources
| Zone | Classification | Cut-off grade (g/t) | Tonnes | Au
(g/t) | Au
Ounces | Ag
(g/t) | Ag Ounces | Au Eq (g/t) | AuEq Ounces | | Oxide | Indicated | 0.23 | 750,000 | 5.70 | 137,500 | 9.9 | 239,000 | 5.81 | 140,200 | | Inferred | 0.23 | 750,000 | 5.01 | 120,900 | 7.7 | 185,000 | 5.10 | 123,000 | | Fresh | Indicated | 0.50 | 44,000 | 10.51 | 15,000 | 14.6 | 21,000 | 10.73 | 15,300 | | Inferred | 0.50 | 286,000 | 8.07 | 74,300 | 8.6 | 79,000 | 8.20 | 75,500 | | Total | Indicated | | 794,000 | 5.97 | 152,500 | 10.2 | 260,000 | 6.09 | 155,500 | | Inferred | | 1,036,000 | 5.86 | 195,200 | 7.9 | 264,000 | 5.96 | 198,500 |
The Company's 2013 exploration program at the San Albino Gold Deposit was designed to de-risk the project by upgrading the quality of the In-Pit resource through additional infill and step-out drilling, and trenching. In all, a further 6,160.5 metres were cored in 73 drill holes, including 236.9 metres across 12 drill holes utilized for metallurgical test work. Trenching comprised 24 trenches, 28 exploration pits and 4 road cuts across 3,945.0 metres.
The program was highly successful, increasing Indicated resources by 113% from 70,000 AuEq ounces to 155,500 AuEq ounces grading 6.09 g/t.
Drilling and trenching were focused on the extensions of near-surface, shallow-dipping, high grade open-pittable mineralized zones situated within 100 metres vertical depth. This resulted in the discovery of a new zone, El Jobo, which lies at surface, structurally above the San Albino zone. There is virtually no waste stripping anticipated for mining of the El Jobo zone.
Four mineralized zones -- El Jobo, San Albino, Naranjo and Arras -- comprise the open-pittable resources which are characterized as either oxide or fresh rock. The In-Pit oxide zone has a 0.23 g/t AuEq cut-off grade. The mining costs for this zone are anticipated to be significantly lower, as drilling and blasting will not be required and the strip ratio is expected to be low. Notably, the lower cut-off grade for the oxide zone did not significantly increase the total gold content due to the well constrained block model (see Resource Estimate Sensitivities tables on website). The fresh rock zone has an AuEq cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t.
The open pit resource model was designed using a Whittle pit optimization model to ensure application of a reasonable stripping ratio and economic assumptions. Parameters utilized in the mineral resource estimate calculation update and pit optimizations include:
| Au recovery -- oxide zone | 91% | | Au recovery -- fresh rock zone | 95% | | Ag recovery -- oxide zone | 59% | | Ag recovery -- fresh rock zone | 85% | | Density -- oxide zone | 2.51 t/m3 | | Density -- fresh rock zone | 2.74 t/m/3 | | Pit slopes | 45 degrees | | Pit depth, maximum | 100 metres |
Out-of-Pit Resources
| Zone | Classification | Cut-off grade (g/t) | Tonnes | Au
(g/t) | Au
Ounces | Ag
(g/t) | Ag Ounces | Au Eq (g/t) | AuEq Ounces | | Oxide | Indicated | 1.5 | 14,000 | 2.43 | 1,100 | 5.1 | 2,000 | 2.49 | 1,100 | | Inferred | 1.5 | 107,000 | 2.69 | 9,300 | 6.5 | 22,000 | 2.77 | 9,500 | | Fresh | Indicated | 1.5 | 19,000 | 3.72 | 2,200 | 5.0 | 3,000 | 3.79 | 2,300 | | Inferred | 1.5 | 2,267,000 | 8.93 | 650,600 | 13.5 | 982,000 | 9.13 | 665,200 | | Total | Indicated | | 33,000 | 3.17 | 3,300 | 5.0 | 5,000 | 3.24 | 3,400 | | Inferred | | 2,374,000 | 8.65 | 659,900 | 13.2 | 1,004,000 | 8.84 | 674,700 |
The San Albino resource model now consists of four shallow dipping, high grade, narrow vein systems over a strike length of 670 metres, down dip extension of 905 metres, with a minimum true width of one metre and average true width of 2.6 metres. Gold grade capping varied from no capping to 85 g/t depending on the vein system. All silver assays were capped at 90 g/t. Inverse distance cubed grade interpolation was on 2m x 2m x 6m blocks utilizing Gemcom modeling software. 223 drill holes and 92 trenches at the San Albino Gold Deposit were utilized in the resource estimate calculation.
The updated mineral resource estimate for the San Albino Gold Deposit was prepared by P&E in accordance with the Canadian Securities Administrators ("CSA") National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") and resources have been estimated using the Canadian institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council.
The mineral resource estimates in this news release were prepared by Eugene Puritch, P.Eng. and Yungang Wu, MSc, P.Geo. of P&E, each an independent qualified person, as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Puritch has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
Located at the southern end of a 20 kilometre long mineralized trend outlined and defined by Golden Reign as the Corona de Oro Gold Belt, the San Albino Gold Deposit is the first of the five areas slated for development by the Company. The Company recently completed a US$15 million gold streaming arrangement with Marlin Gold Mining Ltd. (MLN-V), which will fund the construction and development of the San Albino Gold Deposit (see news release dated July 11, 2014). |
