Bluestone Resources Inc. (TSXV:BSR) has provided a significantly updated Mineral Resource Estimate for its 100% owned Cerro Blanco gold project located in southern Guatemala.
The resource estimate is an update to the resource disclosed in the preliminary economic assessment announced in February 2021 and will be the basis for a current feasibility study.
Highlights (0.4 g/t Au cut-off)
Gold Measured and Indicated resources total 3.1 million ounces grading 1.5 g/t, an increase of 142 koz Au over the previous resource
Silver Measured and Indicated resources total 13.4 million ounces of silver grading 6.6 g/t
Measured category resources of 2.4 million ounces of gold and 10.4 million ounces of silver, an increase of 88% to 40.9 million tonnes grading 1.8 g/t gold and 7.9 g/t silver
Indicated category resources of 0.7 million ounces of gold and 3.0 million ounces of silver, contained within a total of 22.6 million tonnes grading 1.0 g/t gold and 4.2 g/t silver
“We are very pleased with this significant upgrade in the mineral resource, which is a culmination of the additional infill drilling completed this year and during the second half of 2020, along with improved understanding and continuous validation of the geology and mineralisation,” President and CEO, Jack Lundin, said.
“Measured resources have almost doubled from the PEA estimate and now comprise 75 percent of the total ounces, providing a very solid foundation for the open pit reserves calculation and optimized mine plan currently underway as part of the feasibility study.
“Cerro Blanco is arguably one of the highest-grade undeveloped gold projects globally and is in the pipeline as the next big development project for the Lundin Group.”
Cerro Blanco is a classic low-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver deposit comprising both high-grade bonanza-style vein and low-grade disseminated mineralization.
High-grade quartz-adularia veins and mineralized wall rocks are hosted mainly in the Mita unit as two upward-flaring vein swarms (North and South Zones) that converge at depth into basal feeder veins where drilling has demonstrated significant widths of high-grade mineralization, e.g., 15.5 meters at 21.4 g/t gold and 52 g/t silver.
The overlying Salinas unit, a sub-horizontal sequence of volcanogenic sediments and sinter horizons approximately 100 meters thick, form the low-lying hill at the project and is host to low-grade mineralization associated with silicified conglomerates and rhyolite intrusion breccias. This near-surface mineralization and the inverted cone-shape of the underlying high-grade veins render the Cerro Blanco deposit ideally amenable to exploitation by surface methods with a low strip ratio.
The mineral resource has a footprint of 800 x 400 meters between elevations of 525 meters and 200 meters above sea level.
The updated estimate is a result of 158,303 meters of surface and underground drilling by Bluestone and previous operators (766 drill holes and 580 channel samples).
The mineral resource estimate is based on robust geological and structural models, supported by 3.4 kilometres of underground infrastructure that allowed underground mapping, channel sampling, and 42,207 meters of underground drilling that was critical to Bluestone’s current understanding and validation of the Cerro Blanco geological model.
The increase in measured versus indicated resources compared to the previous resource estimate (effective date 31 December 2020) is due not only to additional underground and surface drilling but also improved interpretation and modelling of the lithological units which was imperative for the open pit scenario.
For further information please visit: https://bluestoneresources.ca/
