Minera IRL Limited, the Latin American gold mining company, is pleased to announce that a diamond drilling contract has been awarded to begin drilling the eastern extensions of the Ollachea ore bodies from underground.
Highlights:
- Underground diamond drilling contract for a minimum of 4,000m awarded to Ingetrol Peru SAC. Mobilization to site and set up will enable drilling to commence on 2 January 2013
- The 1,200m exploration drive is scheduled to reach 1,000m by early January providing excellent positioning for exploration drilling of the eastern extension of the Minapampa ore body
- Good progress is being achieved in the drive with ground conditions significantly better than predicted and low water in-flow
"The coming months will be most interesting as we are now in an ideal position to explore the eastern strike extension of the Minapampa orebody where we have just completed our feasibility study." said Courtney Chamberlain, Executive Chairman of Minera IRL. "The tunnel, which is approximately 250 meters below the outcrop at Minapampa, will also place us in an ideal position to explore the down-dip extension of Minapampa as the tunnel advances. The defined mineralization remains open ended and untested along strike and down-dip."
The portal of the exploration drive was collared earlier in 2012 from an adjacent, deeper valley at the site of the future ore processing plant. The rate of progress by the contractor has increased significantly with 370 meters of advance during October and November. Mining has passed through a major regional lineament, the Ollachea thrust fault, and is now within the slate rock package that hosts the gold mineralization. Ground conditions have been better than expected and much less water is seeping into the tunnel than anticipated.
Exploration diamond drilling operations will take place from bays, or "cuddies" excavated at regular intervals along the sidewalls of the exploration drive. Initially, drilling will be directed towards exploring for gold bearing extensions east of the Minapampa orebody. Deeper, down-dip probing can also take place from these same cuddies. As the tunnel access drive reaches the eastern limits of the Minapampa deposit, drilling of depth extensions will become a major focus.
Ingetrol Peru SAC has been selected and is a well established, international drilling company who is also a provider of surface drilling services to Minera IRL. Mobilization to Ollachea will take place during December to enable drilling to commence on 2 January 2013.
At Ollachea, Minera IRL has completed a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) which confirmed a robust project. The Company is investigating financing options and detailed engineering is planned to commence in early 2013. The objective is to commence production at the beginning of 2015. The life of the mine as defined in the DFS is nine years. This does not include over 0.9 million ounces of Inferred Mineral Resource (10.4 million tonnes grading 2.8 g/t Au) at the Concurayoc Zone, only 400 meters west of Minapampa. Extensions of the known mineralization have the potential to further extend the mine life.
Source: http://www.minera-irl.com/