West Plug Already Supplementing Sigma Gold Mine? -
The West Plug is located approximately two kilometres from the Sigma mill.
The West plug mineralization is just one of several targets within the Sigma-Lamaque complex that are planned to be used by CMM to supplement ore feed to the Sigma mill.
The Main plug is still the main source for the Sigma mill and it has produced over four million ounces of gold over its 50-year history.
In the fall of 2005, CMM reported that a total of 5,432 feet of diamond drilling have been completed at the West Plug..
A large proportion of those core samples returned greater than two grams per tonne (g/t) and 56 assays returned greater than five g/t, including 22.9 feet grading 13.25 g/t; 24.2 feet grading 5.91 g/t; and 10 feet grading 14.9 g/t.
The high-grade intercepts at West Plug showed remarkable continuity with previous drill results and were at shallow depths suitable for open-pit mining.
At the time, CMM stated that a new pit design and mine plan were being developed in anticipation of mining the West Plug deposit in the very near future.
Prior to these drilling results, the West plug had measured and indicated resources of 693,000 tonnes at 2.29 g/t Au (51,000 ounces) using a cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au.
In addition, West plug has inferred resources of 489,000 tonnes at 1.89 g/t Au at the same cut-off (29,700 ounces). resources and reserves for West plug will be announced as soon as they are available.
The head grades reported for January averaged 2.28 gms/ton..very close to the grades earlier reported for the West Plug.
Is it possible that CMM have already begun to supplment the Sigma main Plug ore with the higher grade ore from the West Plug ?
If so, the higher grades reported for January might be sustainable for most of 2006....or at least until the high grade Lameque ore enters the Sigma mill late in 2006...
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