Capstone Mining Corp. (CS: TSX) today announced additional high grade intercepts from the last batch of drill holes from 2010 on its high grade Kutcho Copper-Zinc Project.
As previously reported, the drill program followed up on a recommendation in the Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") announced on July 13, 2010 to increase the confidence in approximately 1.1 million tonnes of high grade but inferred class mineral resources in the Esso deposit. A new NI43-101 Mineral Resource estimate is nearing completion and will be announced before the end of 2010. This drilling is one of several initiatives being pursued in order to advance the project to completion of a pre-feasibility study. Highlights for the final batch of drill holes from 2010 are summarized below, while full results are attached. In situ copper equivalent grades are provided for illustrative purposes, based on the metal prices assumed in the PEA. Results for previous holes were announced in August and September.
"The results of the infill drill program completed in the Esso deposit exceeded expectations," said President, Stephen Quin. "Not only have we confirmed the continuity of the Esso mineralization, but have intercepted the highest grades ever encountered on the Kutcho property and over significant intervals. Further, this drilling demonstrated continuity of the high grade mineralization over significant distances," he said. "It is now clear that the Esso deposit will be an important contributor to the economics of the Kutcho Project, and extracting these very high grades early in the mine life should enhance the project return."
Kutcho Work Program
As reported in the August 5, 2010 news release, Capstone is undertaking a work program based on the recommendations of the recently completed PEA on the Kutcho Project. The PEA demonstrated potential for robust economics through the underground extraction of high grade copper-zinc-gold-silver mineralization from the Main and Esso deposits, followed by conventional flotation and production of copper and zinc concentrates. The PEA recommended advancing the project through completion of a Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) and contained a number of recommendations in order to achieve that objective, including infill drilling the Esso deposit to support mineral reserve estimation (done), optimization of metallurgical parameters (underway) and reviewing opportunities to reduce capital and operating costs (underway).
Quality Assurance
The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed by Stephen P. Quin, P. Geo., President of Capstone Mining Corp. and Brad Mercer, P. Geo., VP, Exploration of Capstone. The exploration activities at the Minto project site are carried out under the supervision of Brad Mercer, P. Geo., VP, Exploration of Capstone.
The analytical method for the copper and silver analyses is aqua regia digestion of the samples followed by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Gold is analysed by fire assay fusion with atomic absorption spectroscopy finish for gold. Analyses are carried out by ALS CHEMEX in North Vancouver. When visible gold is noted in drill core samples or regular fire assay values appear abnormally high, the pulp and screen metallic assay method is used to determine the total gold content and gold contents of different size fractions. This is considered industry best practice when dealing with coarse gold mineralization where a nugget effect is suspected. This determination is accepted as the most representative value and is used in the assay database for mineral resource calculations. Blank and standard samples are used for quality assurance and quality control. Where more than two check samples assay outside expected ranges, the entire batch is re-assayed. After the completion of planned drill programs at Minto, random check assays will be carried out by Inspectorate-IPL of Vancouver.
Source: Capstone Mining Corp.