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COLTF One of the Biggest Gold and Tungsten Positions in Portugal, Plus a Rapidly Emerging Middle Eastern Unit
Colt Resources continues putting together one of the biggest packages of high-grade gold and tungsten mining/exploration rights in all of Portugal (some 890 square miles), where the company enjoys a tight-knit relationship at all levels with the mining-friendly local government and where the impact is now really being felt from the EU’s increasing identification in recent years of tungsten as a strategic metal. Heightened EU interest in tungsten has been due in large part to primary global supplier (with roughly 85% of global supply) China’s curtailing of rare earth and metal exports since 2010, a move that was recently addressed somewhat by the WTO dispute ruling in March, but a problem which still puts considerable logistical/strategic heat on European decision makers for finding long-term sources closer to home.
The company recently wrapped Phase 1 of an infill drilling campaign (Feb. 20) begun back in November of 2013 on both of its advanced-stage gold and tungsten projects in Portugal, the Boa Fé gold project in the south, and Tabuaço tungsten project in the north, with some 5.9k feet in 32 holes and 8.5k feet in 22 holes drilled respectively. Designed to support forthcoming feasibility studies on the two projects (expected to be in production in within 18 and 36 months respectively), this latest drilling is also intended to increase confidence in previously reported resource levels and COLTF has targeted an additional 18.4k feet of drilling for the remainder of this year’s first half. Cores are logged and sampled so it’s just a matter of time before the assays come back from COLTF’s lab guys in Spain. The company is wasting no time in the interim and they are currently progressing on the work needed for complete mining permit applications on both projects, including the environmental data collection for the EIAs.
Looking at the NI 43-101 resource estimate from March of last year on Boa Fé, which examined just the six primary targets out of multiple (roughly 40) known gold deposits in the larger 20.5 miles of Ossa-Montemor shear zone, we have really nice returns of around 6.07mt at 1.74 g/t Au (340.31k oz) indicated, or 1.55mt at 1.69 g/t Au (84.20k oz) inferred. A subsequent PEA detailed an after-tax NPV5% of some $64.3M, with an IRR of 30.2% using COLTF’s preferred processing option and open pit mining.
Tabuaço, just 62 miles east south-east of the city of Porto, looks equally good, if not better than Boa Fé. High-grade mineralization has been previously reported at Tabuaço, including 1.50% WO3 over 32.84 feet and 0.93% WO3 over 43.77 feet (including 1.05% WO3 over 28.67 feet). The last NI 43-101 (Oct. 2012) on the project gives us solid baselines of some 1.495mt at 0.55% WO3 indicated, or an inferred mineral resource of 1.230mt at 0.59% WO3. Compare this data to Blackheath Resources’ Covas Project up in the northwest for instance (roughly 60 miles plus to the north of Porto), which is considered high-grade compared to most of the other deposits in the world at around 0.78% WO3, and you can understand why Tabuaço has been fast-tracked for production here within the next two to three years.
Also in the latest operational update on COLTF was the announcement that drilling has started on their Santo António gold JV near Tabuaço, currently under management of the company’s Brazilian partner, Contecnica, with results on the drilling of gold-bearing tailings from this past producer set to come out soon. On the Borba JV to the east of Boa Fé, COLTF is planning a 6.56k-foot drilling program designed to test the project’s vastly similar geology to Boa Fé (both being in the Ossa-Morena zone) and strong indicators of copper-gold and gold mineralization, characterized by prior regional exploration from Rio Tinto and others during the 1986 to 2006 window.
Also in the news for COLTF was progress highlighted last month on their 38% stake in Colt Resources Middle East (CRME), the company’s Middle East-focused affiliate, which completed the second and final closing of their private placement announced back in January, bringing in some CND$1.025M. Current targets for CRME are Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the minerals-rich Tethyan belt being a primary operational goal.
Get a closer look at COLTF by visiting www.coltresources.com
