The Canadian-based company, Sandspring Resources Ltd last month announced “further encouraging gold and copper assay results” from a recently completed drilling programme at its Toraparu gold/copper deposit in Guyana.
In a statement issued on July 4 Sand-springs reported that its ongoing drilling operations “continue to confirm the Toraparu Gold/Copper Project and provide evidence to extend the resource.” The company says that based on the unfolding results of its drilling operations it has extended its drilling operations to areas “where additional resources are expected laterally and to depth. The company‘s current pronouncements are being made based on what it says is a total of 22,162 metres of results. “Sandspring’s objective is to enlarge and optimize the existing resource and continue preparation of a definitive feasibility study .” The report says that operations so far justify the continuation of the Company’s exploration drilling program with the objective of finding eventual satellite deposits.
Various expert analyses of the Toraporu project express considerable optimism of its prospects for success. According to mining expert David West of Salman Partners the project has a total resource of 4 million ounces of gold and 565 million pounds of copper According to West, additional results suggest potential extensions of gold-copper mineralization to the south and southeast of the deposit,
A second expert analysis done by Barry Allen of McKie Research says that the results of the drilling operations undertaken by Sandsprings so far “increase our overall confidence in the deposit, particularly in the SE area of the proposed pit outline where a higher-grade starter pit has emerged, potentially enhancing economic viability.”
In an earlier report released in June this year Sandsprings had reported that drilling at Toraparu had outlined a near-surface resource containing four million ounces of gold and 565 million pounds of copper. The company said then that it believed that Toraparu had many similarities with the Las Christinas and Brisas deposits in neighbouring Venezuela. Toraparu has been assessed as a US$600m project capable of producing 275,000 ounces of gold and 20 million pounds of copper annually over a thirteen year period.
Following a visit to Guyana by senior Sandsprings officials in May this year the company had also essayed an upbeat assessment of the wider gold mining industry in Guyana.
The company’s profile describes it as ‘well-financed” and says that “through its wholly-owned Guyanese medium-scale mining company, ETK. It “is seeking to advance the Toraparu Gold-Copper Project to a large-scale bedrock production”.
Sandspring’s Vice-President of Exploration, Mr. Werner Claessens has said that “there is good potential to find extensions of the existing deposit and satellite deposits in the Toraparu area and a new deposit elsewhere on the Upper Puruni concession.” The company has also said that it plans to complete an additional 60,000 metres of drilling this year that will include some infill drilling as it prepares for its Definitive Feasibility Study. The emphasis of the 2011 drill campaign will be on identifying resource growth and drilling new targets.
During their visit to Guyana in May Sandspring officials were accompanied by representatives of several potential investors including RBC Capital Markets. Scotia Capital Inc. Cormark Securities Inc. Jennings Capital Inc. Dahlman Rose & Company, LLC. UBS Securities Canada Inc and Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd.
