This is a recap of news announcements from the past about NPEC's silver properties in Washington and gold properties in Brazil to refresh your memory before any new announcements are made.
Gold Property
Sept. 2, 1997--NP Energy Corporation (OTC BB:NPEC) has entered
negotiations to acquire a 100% interest in 14 gold properties in the
historic gold camp of Pocone Brazil.
The properties are located 10 kilometers from the town of Pocone at Antena. The potential of the Cuiaba formation at Antena has been known since 1720 when pioneers exploited gold in the area. More Recently, quartz veins and phyllites with gold grades as high as 10 grams/ton had been mined at the site for 10 years. Mechanical excavators were later used to open 10 to 20 meter wide trenches in crude open pit mining of between 200 and 1000 cubic meters per pit. Gold grades from this type if non selective shallow bulk mining were between 0.5 to 2 grams/ton.
Of additional interest to the project is an abundance of tailings material from the early mining process, Tailings dams contain 1,000,000 cubic meters of material ranging from 0.5 to 2 grams of gold/ton with higher grades at a depth of 10 meters into the tailings. Considering a bulk density of 1.7 grams per cubic meter and an average gold grade of 0.7 grams gold/ton this tailing dam is expected to contain 1 tonne of gold.
It is recommended that a plant of 2000 tons per day processing capacity be installed immediately. This would produce 1.5 to 2 kilograms of gold per day.
October 10,1997-News Release
NP Energy Corporation (NPEC) announces the completion of an agreement acquiring a 51% interest in the Urbano Gold property and mill in Pocone Mato Grosso, Brazil.
The acquisitions represents the first phase of project that will utilize a proven high tech processing method for the Garimpetro reject ore. The Urbano Project contains in excess of two million tons of gold bearing material. Several additional acquisitions of upwards of 20,000,000 tons of ore are under negotiations.
All necessary government permits are approved and in place from the mill to begin processing this month (October) approximately 500 ounces of gold per month. NPEC's net interest share per month is projected at US $45,000 per month, net proceeds from this project to NPEC are tabbe at US $4,000,000.
In Pocone the Garimperos (49er type Brazilian miners) over the past 200 years have mined and milled millions of tones of high grade gold ore using inefficient methods of extraction. This has created an interesting predicament, millions of tons of mined and partially mild gold ore that contain evenly distributed , good gold grades that FEMA (the environmental agency) wants processed. The fact that this curima has been mined, milled and placed in neat stock piles creates a superb
source of mill feed for a highly technical gold processing plant. By
acquiring 51% of the Urbano Project, NPEC has entered into a unique
position in gold mine and processing as they are on the leading edge of gold mining industry.
The Urbano Project comprises a High Tech Flotation system that reduces the mass of primary material br a factor of twenty and processes 1000 tons of primary material per day. This means that only a small volume of gold concentrate needs to be chemically processed and leached. The Urbano Project also utilizes a revolution method of gold extraction from cyanide solution that greatly reduces the time and cost of such work.
Oct. 16, 1997--NP Energy Corp.
(NPEC) announced the acquisition of a 51 percent interest in the Urbano gold property and mill in Pocane, Mato Grosso, Brazil. The original projections were based upon 2,000,000 tons of stockpile ore. The original return was calculated at $4,000,000 at the rate of $45,000 per month based upon producing 500 ounces of gold per month.
Additional verifications have now indicated that the tonnage is 2.5 million tons. An additional four stockpiles under acquisition will add another 600,000 tons of ore bringing the total stockpiled ore to 3.1 million tons.
The mill, which began its initial test runs today, Oct. 16, is
projected to produce 62 ounces of gold per day, or 1800 ounces per
month, netting NPEC an to estimated $132,000 month or $12,000,000 from
the present project.
Additional stockpiles under negotiations could bring the tonnage to 20,000,000 tons.
Oct. 31,1997--Pocone Project, Mato Grosso, Brazil
October 10, 1997, NPEC announced its acquisition of a 51 percent interest in a processing mill along with 2,000,000 tons of stockpiled gold ore in Mato Grosso's Pocone field.
The original tonnage had been recalculated to 2.5 million tons of ore and we acquired an additional 600,000 tons of stockpiled ore, bringing the gold ore reserves to 3.1 million tons at present.
October 20, 1997, Paul Baker, NPEC geologist and project manager, announced the commencement of hydrostatic test on the 1000 ton a day flotation plant.
"we have completed three days of flotation test and the system has
functioned perfectly, achieving a very stable flow of 'head foam'; gold
platelets could be seen in concentrate. We plan to make only a few
changes to the system before production.
Installation of a 125,000 liter tank leach system is progress and
completion is expected by the last week in October. The leach system is
capable of processing concentrates from five flotation plants which will
be completed in the next three months.
August 18, 1998--Pocone Brazil Gold Production
Development Plan
The plan that has been followed was the build a Central Processing Plant
at the Urbano Project Site which could process the concentrates from
five 1,000 ton/day satellite flotation plants located in the Pocone
vicinity.
The Central Processing Plant is complete and contains a six bedroom
house, a well equipped laboratory and a 600 sq. meter workshop as well
as supporting the first of the 1,000 ton per day flotation plant. This
Central Processing Plant is now 100% complete and we are now fabricating
and building the second 1,000 ton per day satellite flotation plant.
Flotation Plants
Each flotation plant is designed to process 1,000 tons of ball milled
material per day. This material contains 0.3 to 0.5 grams per ton of
gold.
The flotation plants reduce this material to a 200:1 concentrate. For
each 1,000 tons of 0.4 grams per ton material processed a 5.0 ton
concentrate of 75.0 grams of gold per ton is produced.
Pulp with a density of 40% by volume is made by adding 75,000 liters of
water per hr. to the plant feed material. Four inch diameter by three
inch diameter pulp pumps with a capacity of 2000 liters per minute are
used to inject the pulp into the column flotation units.
Since the flotation plant at the Urbano Project was completed, it has
been operated at 300 tons of ball mill material per day, one third of
its capacity. This is the "break even" point for operation the plant.
Previously, the tailings dam area and return water system were not
completed sufficiently to handle the full capacity of 1,000 tons of ball
mill material per day (on hundreds of pulp per hour) on a continuous
basis. The tailings dam areas and the return water system are being
upgraded to handle this full capacity volume.
Gold Production
Each flotation plant produces 300 grams per day (about ten ounces) of
gold. this gold is contained in the 5.0 concentrate.
Leach Plant
The gold in the concentrate is leached using a cyanide system. The time
required for leaching is twelve hours. The leach plant has a capacity of
150,000 liters, and is capable of handling the concentrates from five
satellite flotation plants. The concentrates from these satellite
flotation plants will be transported to the Central Processing Plant
located at the Urbano Project Site.
Cost break-down Each flotation plant costs approximately $1,100 US per
day to operate at a capacity if 800 to 1,000 tons of ball mill material
per day. This cost does not include amortization of the initial plant
cost.
Silver Property
May 14, 1996
NP Energy Corporation reports that sampling of a multi vein structure in
the main adit of the Melrose Silver Mine has been completed . Veins
widths of between 0.5 ft. and 4 ft. were chip sampled and mapped in
order to outline and correlate values of the structures in place. Assay
results are as follows:
Silver Width
1. 8.53 oz/T 16 inches
2. 0.87 oz/T 20 inches
3. 1.98 oz/T 12 inches
4. 48.62 oz/T 41 inches
5. 108.41 oz/T 6 inches
6. 53.67 oz/T 23 inches
7. 11.02 oz/T 43 inches
8. 30.96 oz/T 27 inches
9. 38.24 oz/T 20 inches
10. 19.18 oz/T pillar sample
The structures sampled indicate the potential of a high grade silver
deposit in a multi vein system. More work will be required to define the
existence of an economic ore body. Management has instructed the
Company's operator to begin a detailed mapping program of the
underground workings and surface outcroppings in order to define drill
targets. It is anticipated that a drill program can be started by early
summer.
July 18, 1996--Report From Melrose Mine
NP Energy Corperation has received a project evaluation report from
Company Engineer Mr. Bill Engles as follows;
A detailed examination of mining properties in East Washington state is
now underway. The purpose of the examination us to augment the Melrose
Mine project.
Three properties were examined and sampled. the first property is next
to the Melrose and has similar/lead with areas of high grade occurrence.
The second property has produced limited tonnage in the past and
returned values of 350 ounces per ton silver and .44 ounces per ton
gold, some of which was free milling. Additional veins have been located
on this property and will be investigated further . If is recommended
that the Company acquire those claims and proceed immediately with
additional staking in this are. The third property is currently under
acquisition by NP Energy Corporation. Visual inspection indicates a
thick vein of some seven feet of massive sulfide in quartz. This has
been sampled and assays are in the lab testing.
We are presently re-assessing our policy in this area. It appears that
we should now raise our appraisal regarding the potential for large
mineable tonnage in the Melrose district and increase our claim holding.
Aug. 21, 1996
In a news release on May 14, 1996 the Company announced progress on a
sampling program on the multi vein system in the old workings of the
Melrose Mine. Assays of between 0.87 and 108.41 ounces per ton (opt)
silver were realized in chip samples taken from vein material in the old
adios and drifts. Further work has been undertaken. Additional ground
has been staked, several new mineralized veins have been discovered and
new gold, copper, silver, areas are being sampled. The first assays of
these areas received on August 2, 1996 are as follows;
Sample Cu % Pb% Zn% Ag(opt) Au (opt)
Rock Creek .587 6.87 17.34 120.97 .017
Charleston .251 .63 .08 90.96 .096
Right face 2.797 .01 .03 8.15 .082
Left face .651 .01 .01 1.328 .026
Mineral Mt. 3.933 .01 .06 12.68 .066 |
