HALIFAX, NS (MINEWEB) - About a kilometre southeast of its multimillion ounce Toroparudeposit in Guyana, Sandspring Resources (TSX-V: SSP) has started to flesh out a satellite gold zone. It isa recent discovery for Sandspring that, as described in a series ofdrilling results it released over the past few months, could proveto hold additional resources for the already sizeable Toroparu goldproject. Toroparu is Sandspring's chief asset and lies in western Guyana, aCaribbean nation on the northeast coast of South America. Toroparuholds some six million ounces in measured and indicated resources @0.78 g/t gold and then about four million ounces inferred @ 0.69g/t Au. Around these gold ounces Sandspring has outlined a miningproject, to cost nearly $500 million to build, that would produceabout 250,000 ounces gold a year over a 14-year minelife from minefeed grading 1.06 g/t Au - a fair bit better than overallresources.
Clearly the main Toroparu deposit remains Sandspring's main focus.It is moving Toroparu towards a feasibility study. But this newdiscovery could nonetheless lead to some interesting options forSandsrping were it to define additional resources. For instance,while projected mine life at Toroparu is 14 years, the totalproject life is 22 years as Sandspring aims to stockpile lowergrade feed and then process it over nearly a decade after theToroparu open pit, as currently conceived, is exhausted. Thoughit's far too early to say with confidence there will be any,additional resources beyond the pit could shore up those grades inthe latter years of Sandspring's current production scenario atToroparu.
Alternatively, Sandspring might decide to pull in such hypothesizedextra feed into its mining schedule earlier, increasing the scopeof the project in the intitial mining years. Such speculation may be putting the cart before the horse. Butstill, the prospect of more near surface resources beyond Toroparusurely has Sandspring management and directors thinking similarthoughts. So far Sandspring has drilled Toroparu-like goldmineralization at the new satellite deposit over some 200 to 300metres in depth and 400 metres or so of strike length.
And therehave been some impressive drilling results over intercepts rangingbetween from 20 to 100 metres or so in width. Some highlightsinclude as much as 107 metres @ 0.97 g/t gold and 87 metres @ 1.6g/t Au. Of course, at this point the discovery is no where near the mainToroparu deposit in size, which runs over two kilometres of strikelength. But the satellite deposit has yet to be fully defined,Sandspring indicates, so there appears to be some room to grow.
Themain question now in terms of exploring the new discovery iswhether gold mineralization continues to the east, in whichdirection Sandspring says the deposit is still open. SUBSCRIBE to Mineweb.com's free daily newsletter now.