Prime Mining Corp. [PRYM-TSXV; PRMNF-OTCQB; A2PRDW-FSE] has announced an updated mineral resource estimate prepared by Stantec Consulting Ltd. for its Los Reyes Oxide Gold and Silver Project located near Cosalá, Mexico.
Highlights
The Updated Resource increases total oxide mineralized material and upgrades the assurance category estimate reliability. The new pit constrained Updated Resource (at 0.22 g/t gold cutoff) increased to 19.8 million tonnes Measured and Indicated plus 7.1 million tonnes Inferred from 6.8 million tonnes Indicated and 3.2 million tonnes Inferred historic global resource (at 0.5 g/t Au cutoff).
The Updated Resource contains 833,082 gold equivalent ounces Measured and Indicated at 1.31 g/t and 261,132 AuEq ounces Inferred at 1.14 g/t.
“We are very pleased with these results and the major increase in potential open pit material,” said Prime COO Gregory K. Liller. “The successful Prime sampling program, started in September 2019, allowed us to evaluate the tonnage and grade in areas between the unsampled outcrop and the drilled subsurface. The sampling program confirmed our belief that the mineralized zones are substantially wider than previously modeled. We believe our planned 2020 exploration program will build on this success with emphasis on three target efforts: 1) down dip and along strike in the pit areas; 2) between pits to connect them together; and, 3) the remaining 60% of Los Reyes’s undrilled structures where outcrop grab samples are similar to sample results in the Updated Resource.”
See this link for project maps and data on Los Reyes: https://primeminingcorp.ca/project/los-reyes-project
Management emphasizes the following four key points:
• Los Reyes is a much larger oxide resource than historic estimates;
• Prime’s plan of advancing to immediate production is now being delayed to conduct exploration, as recommended by Stantec, and increase the scope and size of the project;
• A historic 2013 Preliminary Economic Assessment included test work supporting recoveries of 93% gold and 83% silver with conventional milling, gravity and carbon-in-leach. The Updated Resource uses recoveries of 72% gold and 25% silver; and,
• Prime believes that heap leach processing of mineralized material below certain grades, and mill/gravity/CIL processing for the rest, could provide significant upside to further expand the resource and recover more gold and silver ounces.
Prime has submitted a permit application to initiate road building to access new areas for drilling and trenching. In addition, the engineering team has designed a drilling program to intersect the mineralized structures below proposed pits, along strike, in areas where pits may merge together and in new areas where there is good potential to discover high grade mineralization.
The Update Resource technical report recommends additional trenching to potentially extend the mineralization in El Zapote North and South, San Miguel East and West, between San Miguel East and Noche Buena, as well as in the Tahonitas area.
It is also recommended to complete a 40-hole drilling program to: 1) assess the extension of mineralization down dip below current pit bottoms; 2) test subsurface mineralization identified during trenching program; and 3) assess the continuity between ore bodies, such as El Zapote North and El Zapote South, and between San Miguel and El Zapote North. The proposed method of drilling would include both core and RC holes.
Primes currently has $1.0 million in cash which is sufficient to sustain current operations for the remainder of 2020. In order to fund the proposed 2020 program, the company expects to engage with a strategic partner or enter the capital markets if conditions are favourable.