Andina Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE:ADM) today announced the expansion of its 2010-2011 Field Season campaign from 20,000 m to 31,600 m and the commencement of drilling activities. Budgeted drilling now includes a 10,000 m Strategic Exploration Program and 21,600 m's of Development Drilling including condemnation, metallurgical, geotechnical and water testing. The 2010-2011 field campaign began in November 2010 and is scheduled to conclude in May 2011 with the onset of the Andean winter season.
Three (3) drill rigs, including two (2) Reverse Circulation and one (1) Diamond Drill, are currently turning at the Ojo De Agua East ("ODAE") zone, the focus of this season's Strategic Exploration Program. The ODAE exploration program is designed to follow up on the discovery obtained during the 2009-2010 Field Season, where Andina intersected 122 m at 1.45 grams per tonne ("g/t") Gold, including 32 m at 3.25 g/t Gold and 70 m at 0.56 g/t Gold, including 18 m of 1.71 g/t Gold (see press release dated June 8, 2010). Our objective in the current field season is to expand our discovery and to build a resource estimate for ODAE that has a materially higher average grade, than the average grade at the current Volcan gold deposit (0.71 g/t of Gold – see press release dated September 16, 2010). The purpose of the strategic exploration is to enhance Volcan's economics by supplying Volcan with additional high-grade ore during early production years.
Development Drilling at Volcan includes two (2) additional drill rigs that are currently scheduled for mobilization in early 2011, while development engineering for Volcan is expected to accelerate in Q2 2011 as we continue to focus our engineering efforts on our primary objective, the development of Volcan.
George Bee, President and Chief Executive Officer of Andina stated "As we draw nearer to the Q1 publication of a pre-feasibility study for Volcan, it is very exciting to have the opportunity to aggressively pursue higher-grade mineralization in the vicinity of its proposed Heap Leach Pad and processing facility. We now believe we have a solid scenario for Volcan, which we will be fully describing in the pre-feasibility study including additional areas with further upside potential. However, the opportunity to add high-grade material from ODAE that could significantly improve Volcan's economics is most exciting". Mr. Bee continued by commenting that "In addition to our ODAE Exploration Program, Andina has budgeted US$1.5 million of exploration costs at our joint-venture exploration projects, Pampa Buenos Aires and Encrucijada."
Ojo de Agua East Area Qualified Person
The trenching and drilling program at the Ojo de Agua East area of the Volcan Gold Project was reviewed and the results approved by Mr. Michael Easdon, Andina's Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Easdon has been responsible for preparing technical information on the Ojo de Agua area, which is disclosed in the Company's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2008 (dated April 8, 2009).
Source: Andina Minerals Inc.