Colombian Mines Cuts 17 Meters At 5 g/T Au_Eq, 2.1 Meters at 29.53 g/T Au_Eq And More In First Hole At El Dovio
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/09/13 -- Colombian Mines Corporation (TSX VENTURE:CMJ)(FRANKFURT:X6C) ("Colombian Mines" or "the Company") reports that the first completed drill hole of the Company's Phase I, 2013 drill program at El Dovio intersected multiple high grade zones of gold-silver-copper mineralization. Drilling intersected two significant high grade intervals that averaged 15.6 grams gold per tonne (g/T Au) with a gold equivalent grade (g/T Au_Eq) of 29.53 g/T Au_Eq from 81.4 to 83.5 meters, and 13.77 g/T Au or 16.48 g/T Au_Eq, from 114.75 to 117.7 meters in the projected target zone. Each of these high grade zones occurs within longer drill intercepts of lower grade mineralization of up to 17.05 meters in length as presented in Table 1 below.
Table 1. Summary D13-01A, El Dovio
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Length Length Au Ag Au Au From To (m) (feet) g/T g/T Cu% Zn% g/T_Eq. oz/T_Eq ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 30 4 13.1 2.26 1.93 0.05 0.15 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 69.2 86.25 17.05 55.9 2.38 4.03 0.37 0.71 5.16 0.17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 81.4 86.25 4.85 15.9 7.28 11.74 1.23 1.99 15.57 0.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 81.4 83.5 2.1 6.9 15.60 20.31 2.24 2.09 29.53 0.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 114.75 120.85 6.1 20.0 7.00 4.36 0.02 0.65 9.31 0.30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 114.75 117.7 2.95 9.7 13.77 5.76 0.02 0.13 16.48 0.53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Metallurgical Extraction (McClelland Laboratories) 96.40% 91.10% 97.80% 96.80% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Metal Price used to calculate gold equivalent $1,000 $16.00 $2.50 $0.70 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Metal prices used to calculate gold equivalents are in troy ounces for silver and pounds for copper and zinc. 1 troy ounce = 31.1 grams, 1% / metric tonne = 22 pounds.
Gold Equivalent Calculations and Metallurgical Considerations
Gold equivalency calculations are included to more clearly present the approximate value of the polymetallic mineralization at El Dovio. The gold equivalency for silver, copper and zinc are adjusted for the recovery rate of the respective metal. The recovery rates used are actual recoveries achieved on mineralization from the Sabana Blanca adit using conventional froth flotation as reported to the Company by McCllelan Labratories, a prominent metallurgical laboratory based in Reno, Nevada. Recovery rates as reported in the Company's press release of April 24, 2012, are 91.1% for silver, 97.8% for copper and 96.8% for zinc. In commenting on the flotation results, Mr Gene McCllelan, principal of McCllelan Labratories stated that "in more than 38 years of experience the El Dovio mineralization is some of the most responsive to flotation recovery that I have ever seen." Recoveries may be somewhat higher in actual practice because oxidation products seen in the adit that are known to reduce recovery by flotation methods are not observed in this hole and are not expected to occur widely in the zone of mineralization.
Discussion of Drilling Program and Results
The Phase I drilling program began drilling near the western most exposure of the Sabana Blanca zone near the Sabana Blanca adit where surface and underground sampling indicates the mineralized zone varies from 9 to 30 meters in estimated true width. Drilling will generally progress along trend to the east toward Trench number 2 located roughly 180 meters to the east of the Sabana Blanca adit, where surface, saw cut channel sampling returned a composite interval of 68 meters averaging 4.7 g/T Au, 6.2 g/T Ag, 0.5% Cu and .5% Zn that contained a high grade sub-interval as reported in the Company's press release of May 11, 2011 averaging 58.6 g/T Au, 14.6 g/T Ag, 0.26% Cu and 0.81% Zn over 3 meters.
Hole D13-01A is a re-drill of D13-01 that was abandoned in a fault zone before reaching significant mineralization. D13-01A was drilled from the same drill pad as D13-01 at an inclination of -45 degrees below horizontal at an azimuth of 237 degrees to a total depth of 151 meters with HQ diameter core. D13-01A passes approximately 30 meters vertically below the Sabana Blanca adit, and successfully intersected high grade sulfide mineralization projected down dip from the adit. The results corroborate results from the channel sampling of the Sabana Blanca adit and are an important first step to verify the vertical continuity of mineralization in the Sabana Blanca zone.
D13-01A encountered multiple zones of mineralization as shown in Table 1 above. Within the projected target zone, two sulfide rich intervals of mineralization were intersected. The first, from 69.2 to 86.25 meters averaged 2.38 g/T Au (5.16 g/T Au_Eq) over the entire 17.05 meter drill length, including higher grade subintervals that averaged 7.28 g/T Au (15.57 g/T Au_Eq) from 81.4 to 86.25, and also included an interval averaging 15.6 g/T (29.53 g/T Au_Eq) from 81.4 to 83.5 meters. The second zone averaged 7.00 g/T Au (9.31 g/T Au_Eq) from 114.75 to 120.85 meters including a higher grade sub zone from 114.75 to 117.7 meters averaging 13.77 g/T Au (16.48 g/T Au_Eq).
Mineralization in the first interval consists of multi-phased, coliform banded quartz, with abundant chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite, and in the second interval is comprised of coliform banded, multiphased quartz with abundant pyrite and sphalerite, and trace amounts of chalcopyrite. Photos of representative mineralization are available on the Company's web site.
The hole also intersected previously unknown mineralization from 26 to 30 meters averaging 2.26 g/T Au in oxidized vein quartz with no visible sulfide minerals. The oxide character suggests the response to flotation metallurgy could be very different than unoxidized mineralization. No gold equivalent has been calculated for this interval.
For the purposes of this press release the Company has not applied any "capping" or "top cutting" to the drill results. The presence of numerous high grade samples in the grade range of 30 to 104 g/T Au in the surface channel sampling results and the apparent continuity of high grades zones does not justify capping or top cutting at this time. The drill intercept lengths reported here, are the actual drilled length and may be longer than the true width of mineralization. At this point there is insufficient information as to the overall dip of the structure to estimate the true width in the drill holes. The Company will continue to assess the possible need for capping of high grade and the apparent true width of the mineralized system as sufficient data is developed.
Company President and CEO, Robert Carrington comments that "This hole was as good as I could have hoped for. At first blush, it certainly looks like we are in the early stages of an exciting new discovery. With a few more holes like this, it won't be so much a question of 'if', but more of how big."