News: NI-43101Marketwire
Mindoro Resources Ltd.
February 6, 2008 - 07:00:19 AM
Mindoro Resources Ltd.: NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate Received
EDMONTON, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Feb. 6, 2008) - Mindoro Resources Ltd. (TSX
VENTURE:MIO)(FRANKFURT:WKN 906167) is pleased to report results for a National
Instrument 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate for that part of its Kay
Tanda epithermal gold-silver prospect drilled to date. To date, from 40 to 67
percent of the previously defined Exploration Target, at a cut-off of 0.5
grams per tonne (g/t) gold, has been converted to resources (see "About Kay
Tanda" below). Summary results are:
Kay Tanda: Inferred Resource: 10,592,000 tonnes @ 0.70 g/t Au, 1.9 g/t Ag
(238,000 contained ounces Au)
Pulang Lupa: Inferred Resource: 1,007,000 tonnes @ 0.73 g/t Au, 15.1 g/t Ag
(24,000 contained ounces Au)
Total Inferred Resource: 11,599,000 @ 0.70 g/t Au, 3.0 g/t Ag (262,000
contained ounces Au)
Kay Tanda: Indicated Resource: No indicated resource
Pulang Lupa: Indicated Resource: 3,365,000 tonnes @ 0.88 g/t Au, 8.0 g/t Ag
(95,000 contained ounces Au)
Total Indicated Resource: 3,365,000 @ 0.88 g/t Au, 8.0 g/t Ag (95,000
contained ounces Au)
The tonnage and contained ounces figures above have been rounded to the
nearest thousand and gold grades to the nearest 2nd decimal.
Many gold mineralized intercepts, including much of the bonanza grade
material, were not included in the resource estimate due to wide drill
spacing, averaging 50 meter centers, and lack of information on geological
controls. Additional drilling is required to understand these geological
controls and further upgrade the resource estimate. Mindoro has received an
expression of interest from a company with considerable gold mining expertise
in the region, to advance and potentially co-develop Kay Tanda, and
negotiations are at an advanced stage.
Tony Climie, president of Mindoro, commented, "We are pleased with results to
date. While we would like to have hit our Exploration Target ounces at this
early stage of evaluation, we are confident that with additional drilling and
geological work we will significantly increase the resource at Kay Tanda. In
particular, as we gain a better understanding of the high grade zones and
bring these into the resource, we have the potential to significantly increase
grade. We agree with our consultants that there is excellent potential to
unlock at Kay Tanda and on our adjacent ground, both for epithermal
gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold deposits. We apologize that our reporting
timeline for the Mineral Resource slipped back due to the intense competition
for specialized expertise."
The Mineral Resource Report was completed jointly by Dean Fredericksen,
Principal Consultant, of Ravensgate Mineral Industry Consultants of Australia,
who carried out the Mineral Resource estimate, and Dr. Bruce Rohrlach,
geological consultant, also of Australia, who completed the geological and
quality control / quality assurance components of the report. The report will
be filed on SEDAR and Mindoro's website within 45 days. Mr. Fredericksen and
Dr. Rohrlach have reviewed and verified the technical information detailed in
this release.
The Mineral Resource estimate has been estimated by Ordinary Kriging inside as
series of primary mineralization domains interpreted at greater than 0.15 and
greater than 0.25 g/t gold for Pulang Lupa and Kay Tanda respectively. A later
mineralization event is evident in the drilling results and is characterized
by a strong gold-base metal signature with locally "bonanza" relatively high
gold grades. This mineralization has not been included in the Mineral Resource
estimate at this stage, given that the geological controls on distribution and
continuity of the mineralization are not yet certain. The Mineral Resources
have been reported above a cut-off of 0.4 g/t Au for oxide and transitional
material and above a cut-off of 0.6 g/t for fresh material. "Top cuts" were
applied for Pulang Lupa at 9 g/t gold and for Kay Tanda at 10 g/t gold, and
these result in a significant reduction in the mean grade of the composites of
approximately 15% and 17% in the Pulang Lupa and Kay Tanda domains
respectively.
Dr. Rohrlach concludes:
- The Kay Tanda and Pulang Lupa prospects are interpreted to form part of a
substantially larger mineralizing system which to date remains to be fully
explored. Mindoro's resource delineation drilling at Kay Tanda and Pulang Lupa
has focussed within a relatively small area that is contained within the
shallow portions of the southwest quadrant of an otherwise extensive IP
chargeability anomaly at Kay Tanda-Pulang Lupa that is approximately 1.6
kilometres wide. This is one of four recognised mineralization centres along
the Archangel corridor, and there are several potential avenues for adding
substantial ounces of gold-silver to the preliminary resource base at Kay
Tanda-Pulang Lupa.
- The present indicated component of the resource is contained entirely within
the Pulang Lupa prospect. Additional tonnages of material that are presently
classified as an inferred resource at Pulang Lupa as well as the significantly
larger Kay Tanda inferred resource could be largely converted to the indicated
resource category with relatively modest amounts of additional drilling that
would better define grade continuity.
- The majority of the high-grade and locally bonanza grade intersections at
depth, which relate to the younger base-metal-rich mineralizing event, are not
accounted for in the present resource calculation due to insufficient
understanding of their orientation, thus preventing reliable estimation
domains to be defined. These deeper, high-grade and locally bonanza-grade
quartz-carbonate-base metal vein arrays are an important exploration target in
the deeper parts of the Kay Tanda system that have potential to markedly
improve any economic outlook of Kay Tanda.
- There is geological reason to believe that the deeper base-metal vein
systems trend NNW, near orthogonal to the older and shallower Au-Ag quartz
stockworks which have a prominent northeast control. Using carefully targeted
diamond drillholes oriented orthogonal to the current drilling, Mindoro is
well placed to rapidly test the orientation of these bonanza veins. Once their
orientation is confirmed, Mindoro would then be able to more rapidly delineate
the zones of bonanza grade and trace them along strike, thus incorporating
them into the resource estimate at Kay Tanda and Pulang Lupa. This would have
potential to substantially improve the result of any future economic analysis.
- Extensive areas of excellent potential for both porphyry Cu-Au
mineralization and additional epithermal mineralization occur within the
broader Archangel property and particularly in and around the Kay Tanda
mineralizing centre.
- There is good potential for delineation of contiguous extensions of the
shallow Kay Tanda quartz-Au-Ag stockwork mineralization to the ENE of Kay
Tanda along the zone of argillic alteration (defined by Pima surveys and which
coincides with Au anomalism in soils) that trend toward the Marita prospect.
This zone passes through the prospective north and south Lumbangan areas where
IP anomalies are strong and where Pima data indicates the presence of
Fe-oxides at surface and high-temperature illite alteration.
- The area contiguous with and directly North and NNE of Kay Tanda has
potential for underlying porphyry mineralization. The presence of intense
chlorite-sericite (SCC) alteration and anhydrite veining at depth in diamond
holes that lie near the northeast margin of the Kay Tanda prospect, and the
location of the center of the 1.6-km-wide IP chargeability anomaly that lies
near the northeast margin of the Kay Tanda drill grid suggest that a porphyry
target may lay at depth proximal to the northeast margin of the Kay Tanda
deposit.
- The Marita and Bootin prospects remain prime porphyry exploration targets.
ABOUT KAY TANDA
Epithermal gold-silver mineralization at Kay Tanda is associated with
extensive and intense quartz stockworks, veins and hydrothermal breccias, with
accompanying base metal sulphides. Kay Tanda is reflected by an induced
polarization chargeability anomaly that is about 1.5 kilometers by 1.4
kilometers in extent, which is part of a much larger chargeability anomaly
which extends over six kilometers along strike to the northeast. To date,
drilling has been conducted only on the Kay Tanda part of the trend.
Mindoro has completed 147 reverse circulation (RC) and twenty six core drill
holes at Kay Tanda. Almost all holes have encountered near-surface, generally
flat-lying to gently-dipping blanket-like low-grade stockwork mineralization.
This is strongly to partially oxidized to depths of 40 to 160 meters and
non-oxide below this. Drilling, especially at deeper levels, has encountered
at least five steeply-dipping, much higher-grade zones with bonanza grades to
246 g/t gold and over 1,000 g/t silver, which are interpreted as structurally
controlled upflow, or "feeder" zones.
Structural studies are in progress to determine the nature and controls of the
high-grade zones, and the latest hole (KTDH-24) has helped considerably in
this regard. The high-grade mineralization appears to occur preferentially at
elevations below 250 meters (ASL) interpreted to be a paleo-boiling zone. Few
holes have penetrated to this depth to date. Such upflow zones can be
associated with bonanza mineralization and constitute some of the world's best
epithermal gold-silver deposits.
At a cut-off 0.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, the immediate Exploration Target
is from 35 to 40 million tonnes of open-pitable material at a grade of 0.76 to
0.80 g/t gold and 2.4 to 2.8 g/t silver, containing between 860,000 and
1,000,000 ounces of gold and 2.7 million to 3.6 million ounces of silver. At a
cut-off at 0.5 g/t gold, the immediate Exploration Target is from 15 to 20
million tonnes of open-pitable material at a grade of 1.1 to 1.4 g/t gold and
3.0 to 3.4 g/t silver, containing from 530,000 to 900,000 ounces of gold and
from 1.45 to 2.2 million ounces of silver.
Kay Tanda is being evaluated for its open-pit, heap leach potential. Initial
metallurgical test work has produced excellent results. Kay Tanda is
interpreted as intermediate to low sulphidation epithermal
quartz-carbonate-gold-silver-base-metal mineralization telescoped into the top
of an underlying porphyry copper-gold system.
The reader is cautioned that the potential quantity and grade of the
Exploration Target described is conceptual in nature, that there has been
insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and that it is uncertain
if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral
resource. Until a feasibility study has been completed there is no certainty
that the Company's projections will be economically viable.
Programs are carried out under the supervision of Tony Climie, P.Geol., who is
a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Sample
preparation and assaying is performed by McPhar Laboratory of Manila, an ISO
9001/2000 accredited laboratory. Gold assays were by 50 gm fire assay fusion;
where gold assays greater than 3 ppm were by gravimetric finish, and by AAS
where the gold values were less than that threshold. Silver was determined by
AAS after an HCl-HNO3-HClO4 digest. Normal Quality Control and Quality
Assurance procedures are being carried out, using a system of duplicate,
standard and blank samples.
ABOUT MINDORO
Mindoro is a Tier 1 Issuer trading on the TSX Venture Exchange (MIO) and the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN 906167). The Company is carrying out three major
drill programs: resource delineation and expansion drilling on the Kay Tanda
epithermal gold-silver prospect where a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate
is in progress; reconnaissance drilling on the Calo porphyry copper-gold
prospect; and advancing a significant nickel laterite prospect towards early
production; in addition to holding another 22 identified porphyry copper-gold
prospects in the Philippines.
This release may contain forward-looking statements including management's
assessments of future plans and operations, and expectations of future
production. These statements are based on current expectations that involve a
number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ
materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited
to, the risks associated with the mining and exploration industry (e.g.
operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or
changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or
capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve estimates; the uncertainty of
estimates and projections relating to production). The assumptions used in the
preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of
preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not
be placed on forward-looking statements.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Mindoro Resources Ltd. Penny Gould Executive Vice President (780) 413-8187
Email: penny@mindoro.com Website: www.mindoro.com
Ascenta Capital Partners Inc. Trent Dahl Investor Relations-Canada (604)
628-5800 or Toll Free: 1-866-684-4209 ext. 228 Email: info@mindoro.com
Argentuminvest GmbH Richard Mayr Investor Relations-Europe +49.9421.785250
+49.9421.785255 (FAX) Email: info@argentuminvest.com
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility
for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.