[ Manila Bulletin Online ] March 23, 2008
By MELODY M. AGUIBA
Two mining companies separately based in Canada and UK have reported positive drilling results of "bulk tonnage" copper-gold in mineral-rich Compostela Valley and increased gold resource at Runruno, Nueva Vizcaya.
"The results of these drill holes have now confirmed a ‘new zone of porphyry style mineralization’ within the overall Tagpura porphyry copper gold mineralization system," said CRC in a statement.
However, Brett Taylor, CRC president and chief executive officer, warned that the immensity of the mining reserve remains a potential.
"It means large but only a potential (yet) as more geological investigation is needed," he said in a phone inquiry.
Tagpura is believed to be highly-mineralized as this in an area within several world-class gold and copper gold-deposits including Diwalwal.
At Runruno, Nueva Vizcaya, London Stock Exchange-listed Metals Exploration PLC (MEP) reported an increase in indicated gold resource to 775,000 ounces, almost double the previous 409,000 ounces, with a grade of 2.41 grams per metric ton (MT), also higher than earlier grade of 2.27 grams per MT.
The report, which complies with international audit standard Joint Ore Reserve Code (JORC), showed that the Runruno gold-molybdenum deposit is estimated to have an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 27 million metric tons (MT) of gold and 36.69 million pounds of molybdenum at 0.062 percent.
"The near doubling of the ounces …is extremely good news. This, combined with the improved gold grade and the increase in certainty,,,underpins the company’s announced commissioning of a detailed (technical and economic) scoping study," said MEP Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Beardsworth in a statement.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau earlier estimated that Runruno may become a major Philippine mine worth $ 2.5 billion and is particularly big with its molybdenum, a pure metal silvery white in color, fairly soft, and is effective in hardening steel.
It is important in plant nutrition and is found in certain enzymes such as xanthine oxidase. Its price, similar to gold which has considerably increased now hitting to a $ 1,000 per ounce mark, has risen to about $ 25 per pound from $ 2 per pound in 2000.
Runruno is a well-explored site. Fil-am explored it from 1969 to 1972 with a total of 69 diamond drill holes under which it estimated a resource of 13.4 million metric tons (MT) at an average grade of 1.41 gram per MT of gold for a total contained 607,500 ounces of gold. Consolidated Goldfields of Australia in 1974 did separate exploration drillings.
MEL has a separate exploration interests in a former copper-gold producing property in Baguio which was being explored for copper-gold in the 1970s and was originally seen as a potential copper site under a reconnaissance program of MGB in 1967.
The company also has exploration interest in three other projects—Masapelid (70 percent interest), Jaclupan (100 percent) which is within five kilometers away from an underground copper-gold mine of Atlas with a premining reserve of one billion MT with a grade of 0.46 percent copper, and Puray (100 percent) in Rizal.
Puray is believed to contain high-grade and disseminated copper, zinc, silver, and gold similar to the Kuroko producer of copper, zinc, silver, gold, and lead in Canada.
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