According to the company, the new indicated resource was estimated at 1.261 million ounces of gold and 14.37 million ounces of silver contained in 82.11 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.0154 ounces per tonne gold and 0.175 ounces per tonne silver with a cutoff of 0.008 opt gold. This constitutes an increase of 244,000 indicated ounces of gold since the last resource was calculated in 2012.
Teras team managed to convert a substantial portion of the 2012 inferred resource into the indicated category
An additional inferred resource is reported of 74,800 ounces of gold and 684,800 ounces of silver contained in 3.585 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.021 ounces per tonne gold and 0.19 ounces per tonne silver at a cutoff of 0.008 ounces per tonne gold.
The miner also said that this new resource estimate is based on the same cutoff grade and gold price used to calculate the 2012 mineral resource estimate. Back then, the gold price averaged $1,669/ounce. The cutoff grade used for both reports is 0.008 oz Au/ton and is based on the most likely expectation for the development of an open-pit operation using heap-leach processing methods.
“Our team has managed to convert a substantial portion of the 2012 inferred resource into the indicated category. Our indicated contained gold and silver ounces have increased by 24% and 21% respectively while maintaining the same average grades of 0.15 opt gold and 0.17 opt silver. The indicated resource tonnage increased by 17% over the 2012 resource,” Joseph Carrabba, Teras Resources CEO, said in the media brief.
The 1800-acre Cahuilla project is located in Imperial County, some 50 miles from New Gold’s operating Mesquite mine. The property encompasses a series of high-grade veins that returned intercepts of up to 135 g/t gold and 1040 g/t silver.
