Brazil Resources Inc. Increases Indicated Resource by 77% to 786,737 Ounces Gold at 1.4 g/t and Inferred Resource by 184% to 628,035 Ounces Gold at 1.12 g/t at its Cachoeira Gold Project
VANCOUVER, March 4, 2013 /CNW/ - Brazil Resources Inc. (TSX-V: BRI; OTCQX: BRIZF) ( the "Company" or "Brazil Resources") is pleased to announce the results of a recently completed National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") mineral resource estimate, which was completed by Tetra Tech, Inc. ("Tetra Tech") on the Company's Cachoeira do Piria Gold Project, located in the Pará state, Brazil. The resource estimate has an effective date of March 1, 2013. Highlights include:
- Indicated Resource - 17,470,093 tonnes at 1.40 g/t gold (786,737 ounces);
- Inferred Resource - 15,666,580 tonnes at 1.12 g/t gold (628,035 ounces);
- This new estimate represents a 77% increase in the indicated and a 184% increase in the inferred categories over the December 2010 Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. ("RPA") figures; and
- Resource expansion drilling program to be initiated 2Q 2013.
Stephen Swatton, President and CEO, stated: "This resource estimate from Tetra Tech, one of the world's leading mining consulting companies, is a milestone for the Company. We are currently reviewing all options to fully exploit the potential of the asset, including the possibility of developing multiple pits in addition to further exploration of the surrounding areas. The current drill spacing is approximately 60m, therefore the Company will embark on further tighter drilling with minimal cost to upgrade much of the inferred resource to the indicated resource category."
The Company recently signed a drilling contract with Servitec Foraco Sondagem S.A. and expects to commence an initial drill program at the Cachoeira Project in calendar Q2 2013, the size of which will be determined by the outcome of ongoing studies. The Company will also explore extensions of the currently known mineralized zones as in-house district wide studies intimate that mineralization may not only be constrained to the three zones identified on the property to date.
The difference in the total resources calculated by RPA and Tetra Tech is explained by the application of an in-pit design resource estimate incorporated in the technical report by RPA dated July 19, 2012 titled "Techncial Report on the Cachoeira Project, Pará State, Brazil" (the "RPA Estimate"). The preliminary Whittle pit optimization study completed by RPA in 2010 reported an indicated resource of 12.5 million tonnes grading 1.11 g/t gold and an inferred resource of 5.4 million tonnes grading 1.27 g/t gold. The resources, as reported by RPA, were constrained within an economic pit-shell with the following parameters: gold price of US$1,250, pit slope angles of 45 degrees, 90% gold recovery, mining cost between $2.50-2.60 per tonne and general and administration costs of US$1.50. The RPA Estimate therefore, by definition, excluded many gold rich intersections which fell outside of the RPA defined pits for Arara, Coruja and Tucano. By comparison, the Tetra Tech estimate was constrained only by the geological models of the mineralized zones and by the lower threshold grade of 0.35 g/t gold.
Tetra Tech has estimated the mineral resources in accordance with NI 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum classification system, using the Company's dataset of 42,432 assays, which includes historical diamond drilling, outcrop, underground channel samples, auger and reverse circulation drilling. Exploration at the Cachoeira Project was initiated in 1985 by Companhia de Mineração e Participações and Mineração CCO Ltda ("CCO") and continued through the 1990's with work by Brazilian Goldfields Ltd ("BGZ") and Goldfields Ltd ("Goldfields"). Companhia Vale do Rio Doce ("Vale") conducted an exploration program at Cachoeira in 2003. Luna commenced exploration at the property after it acquired it in 2007. The Company acquired the project in 2012. CCO drill core assays were conducted at Geoser Laboratory, Belo Horizonte. The BGZ and Goldfields drill core assays were conducted at Bondar Clegg Laboratories, Vancouver. The Vale core assays were conducted at Geosol Laboratories, Belo Horizonte. Luna used ALS Chemex Laboratories in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Lima, Peru for drill core assays. The data from such exploration programs utilized in the resource estimate met quality assurance/quality control requirements, which are set forth in more detail in the RPA Estimate. Both RPA and Tetra Tech applied a 0.35 g/t gold cutoff in their analyses.
As part of the current study, Tetra Tech also investigated the influence of high grade material and ran a model to apply a 'cap' to exclude statistically anomalous values based on a distribution curve. The potential risk in including statistically high values in a resource estimate is that their contribution to the estimated grade will be disproportionate to their contribution to the tonnage and therefore the grade of the resource as a whole will be overstated. The conclusion of the study is that, if a cap is applied, it only reduces the resource by 13.7% in the indicated and 4.7% in the inferred category.
Cachoeira Project Resource Table
INDICATED VEINS | TONNES | GOLD | GOLD CAP | GOLD | GOLD CAP |
@ 0.35 G/T | G/T | G/T | OZ TROY | OZ TROY | |
ARARA VEINS | 528,435 | 1.805 | 1.740 | 30,658 | 29,554 |
CORUJA VEINS | 84,272 | 2.026 | 2.016 | 5,490 | 5,463 |
TUCANO VEINS | 4,051,741 | 2.160 | 1.846 | 281,365 | 240,514 |
TOTAL VEINS | 4,664,448 | 2.12 | 1.84 | 317,514 | 275,531 |
INDICATED ALTERATION | TONNES | GOLD | GOLD CAP | GOLD | GOLD CAP |
@ 0.35 G/T | G/T | G/T | OZ TROY | OZ TROY | |
ARARA HALO | 1,592,239 | 1.623 | 1.056 | 83,098 | 54,081 |
TUCANO HALO | 11,213,406 | 1.071 | 1.004 | 386,124 | 362,064 |
TOTAL ALTERATION | 12,805,645 | 1.14 | 1.01 | 469,223 | 416,145 |
TOTAL INDICATED | 17,470,093 | 1.40 | 1.23 | 786,737 | 691,676 |
ALL INDICATED | TONNES | GOLD | GOLD CAP | GOLD | GOLD CAP |
@ 0.35 G/T | G/T | G/T | OZ TROY | OZ TROY | |
ARARA VEINS + HALO | 2,120,674 | 1.67 | 1.23 | 113,757 | 83,635 |
CORUJA VEINS | 84,272 | 2.03 | 2.00 | 5,490 | 5,415 |
TUCANO VEINS+HALO | 15,265,147 | 1.36 | 1.23 | 667,490 | 602,578 |
TOTAL INDICATED | 17,470,093 | 1.40 | 1.23 | 786,737 | 691,628 |
INFERRED VEINS | TONNES | GOLD | GOLD CAP | GOLD | GOLD CAP |
@ 0.35 G/T | G/T | G/T | OZ TROY | OZ TROY | |
ARARA VEINS | 631,690 | 2.41 | 2.38 | 40,883 | 40,399 |
CORUJA VEINS | 139,835 | 1.62 | 1.61 | 4,386 | 4,367 |
TUCANO VEINS | 2,207,256 | 2.01 | 2.00 | 262,465 | 259,905 |
TOTAL VEINS | 2,978,781 | 2.08 | 2.06 | 311,817 | 308,679 |
INFERRED ALTERATION | TONNES | GOLD | GOLD CAP | GOLD | GOLD CAP |
@ 0.35 G/T | G/T | G/T | OZ TROY | OZ TROY | |
ARARA HALO | 1,757,048 | 1.17 | 0.80 | 59,687 | 40,780 |
TUCANO HALO | 10,930,751 | 0.85 | 0.84 | 305,916 | 303,273 |
TOTAL ALTERATION | 12,687,799 | 0.89 | 0.84 | 367,451 | 343,794 |
TOTAL INFERRED | 15,666,580 | 1.12 | 1.07 | 628,035 | 599,662 |
ALL INFERRED | TONNES | GOLD | GOLD CAP | GOLD | GOLD CAP |
@ 0.35 G/T | G/T | G/T | OZ TROY | OZ TROY | |
ARARA VEINS + HALO | 2,388,739 | 1.49 | 1.21 | 101,860 | 82,825 |
CORUJA VEINS | 139,835 | 1.62 | 1.61 | 4,386 | 4,367 |
TUCANO VEINS+HALO | 13,138,007 | 1.04 | 1.04 | 512,619 | 508,005 |
TOTAL INFERRED | 15,666,580 | 1.12 | 1.07 | 628,035 | 599,662 |
The resources were estimated by inverse distance squared (ID2) weighting and grades were interpolated into blocks in a single pass. A minimum of two and a maximum of 12 composites within the volume of the search ellipse were necessary for a grade to be interpolated into a block. A maximum of two composites was permitted per drill hole so that a grade could be interpolated into a block on the basis of a single drill hole. Composites could only be drawn from the geological model for which a grade was being estimated to avoid over- or underestimation of grades within a given geological domain.
In addition to capped and uncapped gold grades, the number of drill holes and composites used for each estimated value was recorded as well as the mean distance of those composites from the centroid of the block.
Resources were classified as indicated or inferred. In order for a block to be classified as indicated, it was necessary that the grade that it contained was based on a minimum of four drill holes and that the mean distance of the composites from those holes was 50 meters or less from the centroid of the block. All blocks that failed to meet the criteria for indicated classification, but had an estimated grade of at least 0.001 g/t gold were classified as inferred.
Qualified Person
The resource estimate was prepared by Greg Mosher, M.Sc. P.Geo. Mr. Mosher is a qualified person and a Senior Geologist with Tetra Tech and is independent of the Company, as defined by section 1.5 of NI 43-101. Paulo Pereira, the Company's Vice President of Exploration, has supervised the preparation of, and reviewed, the technical information contained in this document. Mr. Pereira holds a Bachelor degree in Geology from Universidad Do Amazonas in Brazil, is a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101 and is a member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario.
About Brazil Resources Inc.
Brazil Resources is a public mineral exploration company with a focus on the acquisition and development of projects in emerging producing gold districts in Brazil, Paraguay and other parts of South America. Currently, the Company is advancing its Cachoeira, Montes Áureos, Trinta and Maua Gold Projects located in the Gurupi Gold Belt in the state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil, and its Artulandia Copper-Gold Project in central Brazil.
Cautionary Note
This news release utilizes the terms "indicated" and inferred" mineral resources in accordance with NI 43-101. While those terms are recognized by Canadian securities regulatory authorities, they are not recognized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and the SEC does not permit U.S. companies to disclose resources in their filings with the SEC. U.S. investors are cautioned that the mineral resource information contained herein is not comparable to information regarding mineral reserves disclosed in accordance with SEC requirements.
Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in the "indicated" and "Inferred" categories will ever be converted into mineral reserves with demonstrated economic viability or that inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and/or indicated categories through further drilling. In addition, the estimation of inferred resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of resources.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future exploration plans at the Cachoeira Project, potential mineralization and resource estimates. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the markets in which the Company operates. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including: the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drill results and other exploration data, the potential for delays in exploration or development activities, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, accidents, equipment breakdowns, title matters, labor disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in operations, fluctuating metal prices, unanticipated costs and expenses, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, commodity price fluctuations, currency fluctuations, regulatory restrictions, including environmental regulatory restrictions and other factors listed in the Company's public filings, including its Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended November 30, 2011. These risks, as well as others, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
SOURCE: Brazil Resources Inc.
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Stephen Swatton or Patrick Obara
Telephone: (855) 630-1001
E-mail: [email protected]
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