Colossus Minerals Inc. Announces 2012 ... Exploration program
Toronto, Ontario, January 18, 2012 – Colossus Minerals Inc. (the “Company” or “Colossus”) (TSX: CSI) announces the details of its 2012 exploration program.
An exploration budget of approximately R$18.2 million (USD $10.1 million) has been approved for surface exploration by the board of directors for work to be conducted in 2012. In addition, a budget of approximately R$3.1 million (USD $1.7 million) has been approved for underground exploration and forms a part of the Company’s ongoing underground development budget.
Claudio Mancuso, President and CEO commented, “Our 2012 drill program has been designed with the goal of expanding the CMZ and GT Zones as well as targeting promising new regional targets on the Serra Pelada and Cutia properties. With a minimum of five surface and two underground rigs, the program balances exploring for extensions and improving our understanding of the grade distribution in both the CMZ and GT Zones in preparation for production in 2013. Additionally, the regional exploration is intended to identify a pipeline of promising properties in order to leverage the investment in infrastructure and personnel we have made at Serra Pelada, our flagship property. Earlier this week we announced the addition of the Cutia Property, 13 kilometres southeast of Serra Pelada, and it is our intention to commence drilling on that property later this year.”
The 2012 surface and underground exploration programs consist of the following drilling:
- 15,000 metres of surface drilling on the Central Mineralized Zone (CMZ) and GT Zone.
- 15,000 metres of underground drilling on the CMZ and GT Zones.
- 5,000 metres to be drilled on new targets within the Serra Pelada property boundary.
- 2,000 metres to be drilled on the newly acquired Cutia property.
Surface drilling in 2012 will continue to focus on both the CMZ and the GT Zone. Drilling will focus largely on both infill and extension drilling on the CMZ and definition on the GT Zone to better understand the extent of this gold and platinoid rich breccia. In addition, drill testing will be done on the highly prospective Elephante and Young Garimpo areas of the property where anomalous soil samples and follow-up auger drilling have proven the areas to contain gold and platinoid mineralization. The exploration program also includes drilling on the newly acquired Cutia Property.
The fold hinge hosting the CMZ can now be traced for over a kilometre from the edge of the historic pit and drilling efforts in 2012 will concentrate on expanding this length as well as search for additional high grade gold, platinum and palladium mineralization that characterizes the CMZ.
A diamond drill is currently drilling from an underground drill bay established in the ramp that is being driven towards the CMZ. The current drilling from underground is twofold. It will serve to help establish ground conditions ahead of the ramp development and it will help establish horizontal widths ahead of the planned delineation drilling in the upper part of the CMZ where a bulk sample is scheduled to be taken from the orebody in 2012.
The GT Zone consists of a mineralized iron oxide rich breccia and forms part of the lower limb of the large fold structure, the nose of which hosts the Serra Pelada orebody. The GT Zone essentially remains open and will be the target of drilling in 2012 in order to better understand the extent of the breccia zone and its mineralization.
Exploration work on the newly acquired Cutia property will consist of detailed mapping of the existing pits, shaft locations and outcrops followed by soil sampling along the untested strike length of the Cutia Fault Zone. Once this work has been completed a short diamond drilling program will be conducted to test for the auriferous vein material below the historic garimpeiro pits which currently define the known mineralization along a strike length of 600 metres.