Mr. Chris Frostad reports
MINERA ALAMOS INC. PROVIDES PLANS REGARDING LA FORTUNA GOLD PROJECT
Minera Alamos Inc. has provided additional details regarding its acquisition of the La Fortuna gold project located in Durango, Mexico, announced in its press release dated Jan. 18, 2016.
"One of the primary factors in our decision to acquire La Fortuna is its advanced stage of development," said Chris Frostad, chief executive officer of Minera Alamos. "The scope of previous test work that is available gives us a significant head start on the development timeline. We expect to be able to complete a preliminary economic assessment of La Fortuna by this summer."
"The ability to preconcentrate the gold mineralization at La Fortuna using crushed rock sorting equipment presents a number of interesting opportunities for the project," said Darren Koningen, president of Minera Alamos. "It appears that sorting equipment can effectively reject coarse crushed rock containing less than 0.6 to 0.8 gram per tonne gold, which would reduce the amount of material needing to be processed for gold recovery by 75 per cent or more. Obviously, this could have significant and positive impact the overall project economics."
Highlights:
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Comprehensive mineralogical analyses demonstrating that the gold in the
deposit occurs as free grains;
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Metallurgical test work demonstrating the potential for exceptional
recoveries by most common gold recovery techniques, including gravity
(approximately 90 per cent) and cyanide leaching (98 per cent);
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Heap-leach recoveries in excess of 60 per cent with the potential to increase
recoveries further through fine crushing (less than one-quarter inch);
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Ore-sorting test work completed on production-scale equipment has
demonstrated the potential for plus-90-per-cent gold recoveries, with approximately
25-per-cent mass recovery from coarse crushed rocks (approximately one inch to 1.5 inches);
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Ability to recover over 95 per cent of gold from coarsely ground mineralized rock
(plus 200 microns) into a flotation concentrate with only 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the
original rock mass;
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Work has now commenced to identify capital equipment required for the
preparation of the preliminary economic assessment; Minera Alamos would like to take advantage of
the surplus of used equipment currently available Mexico and North
America;
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The company intends to target the release of the preliminary economic assessment in the third quarter of 2016.
La Fortuna project
The La Fortuna gold project includes the historic La Fortuna mine, together with the surrounding concessions, totalling 994 hectares. The property is located in the northwestern corner of the state of Durango, Mexico, about 70 kilometres northeast of the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa.
Initial development of La Fortuna followed the 1884 discovery of the gold-bearing oxidized outcrop. Between 1886 and 1892, a 200-tonne-per-day gravity mill was built near the site to process ore that was selectively mined underground. Reportedly, about 200,000 tonnes of material grading 20 grams per tonne was mined and processed during this period. In 1987, an 80-tonne-per-day flotation mill was installed in order to process the sulphide ore, operating intermittently until 1990.
Between 1991 and 2008, numerous exploration surveys were performed, which included detailed mapping and sampling of the underground workings and the drilling in the immediate La Fortuna mine area. These programs culminated in the development of a resource block model which produced a measured and indicated resource of 4.8 million tonnes at two grams per tonne gold (308,000 contained ounces) at a 0.5-gram-per-tonne-gold cut-off grade as detailed in the attached table.
LA FORTUNA RESOURCES
Measured category Indicated category Measured and indicated
Au cut-off Tonnes Au Tonnes Au Tonnes Au Au ounces
grade (g/t) (000) (g/t) (000) (g/t) (000) (g/t) (000)
0.8 1,322 3.332 2,681 1.731 4,003 2.260 290.8
0.5 1,538 2.956 3,287 1.533 4,824 1.986 308.1
Notes:
(1) Resources are as reported in the National Instrument 43-101
technical report, titled "La Fortuna Project, Durango, Mexico,
Updated Technical Report for Castle Gold," by Toren K. Olson, PGeo,
and dated Nov. 21, 2008.
(2) Based on a total of 127 drill holes comprising 19,400 metres,
including 121 original holes (18,885 metres) plus six twin holes
comprising 515 metres.
(3) Assays normally included silver as well as gold. However, in some
cases, silver values were not available, and, as a result of the
inconsistency of this sampling, resources of silver were not calculated.
(4) To the best of knowledge, information and belief of Minera Alamos, there
is no new material scientific or technical information that would make
the disclosure of the mineral resources set out in the foregoing
technical report inaccurate or misleading.
(5) Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated
economic viability. There is no certainty that all of any part of the
mineral resources will be converted into mineral reserves.
Pursuant to the terms of the binding letter of intent, the company will pay the vendor $750,000 (U.S.) on closing. An additional $250,000 (U.S.) will be paid nine months after the closing and $1-million (U.S.) will be paid upon the announcement of a construction decision. The vendor is also entitled to a 2.5-per-cent net smelter returns royalty subject to a maximum amount of $4.5-million (U.S.). The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval.
Darren Koningen, PEng, Minera Alamos's president, is the qualified person responsible for technical content of this release under NI 43-101. Mr. Koningen has supervised the preparation of and approved the scientific and technical disclosures utilized in this news release.
We seek Safe Harbor.
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