Dana Resources Technical Update on Collota 1.17 Million Ounce Gold Deposit
Wednesday, August 26th 2009
Dana Resources a US-based precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the initiation of the production program at its Collota gold deposit. Dana Resources currently owns and operates seven mining projects located in Peru’s most prolific mining regions.
The Collota Gold Deposit is located in Northern Peru in the region of Ancash on the eastern side of the Cordillera Negra (Black Range Mountains). It is 45km south of the city of Huarez. Elevation ranges from 4,100m to 4,600m.
Dana Resources currently plans to produce gold for sale by 2012. Under the proposed model, permitting all zones are to commence shortly. The permitting process is expected to run 12 to 18 months and production setup time is expected to run 18 to 24 months.
A neighbouring company, IRLS MINERA, successfully put its deposit into production using the same model after raising $20 million. Their deposit is 40 percent smaller than Dana Resources’ Collota deposit.
Dana Resources plans on processing the oxide zone first due to the low cost open pit heap leach process. Initially, Dana Resources expects to net $15 per tonne of ore. The Collota gold deposit oxide zone has 27 million tonnes available to be processed using a cut-off grade of 0.25 grams per ton. At this cut-off, Dana Resources will net over $400 million profit from the oxide zone. The sulphide zone has over 13 million tons ready to be processed with expectations to net approximately $150 million profit.
The Collota gold deposit estimated resource totals 1,170,000 ounces of gold, equivalent to a current gross in-situ value in excess of $1 Billion.
Dana Resources is anxious to commence the production program at Collota. The Board of Directors commented, “We are very excited to initiate our production program at Collota. As previously stated, our plan is to simultaneously increase the size and grade of the Collota deposit and continue permitting the project for production. We believe with further drilling, the Collota deposit could reach upwards of 3 million ounces of gold.”
With some of the richest mineral reserves in the world, Peru is one of the highest producing countries of precious & base metals in Latin America. Previously inaccessible regions are now becoming available through modern technology and equipment, making the high diversity of marketable minerals an extremely attractive prospect. In total, Peru holds about 16 percent of the world’s known mineral reserves.
