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View Marmato 3D Mineralization
The Marmato project in Caldas department is in the heart of the Middle Cauca gold district some 80 km south of Medellin and is Gran Colombia’s flagship project. Gran Colombia acquired the project via its merger with Medoro Resources in June 2011. The project has excellent infrastructure, being located by the Pan American Highway with access to Medellin to the north and Manizales to the south, and having access to the national electricity grid which runs near the property.
The Marmato district, perhaps named from “marmaja” an old Spanish word for iron-rich sphalerite, has been exploited since pre-Colonial times by the Quimbaya people. The Spanish colonists assumed control of the Marmato mines in 1527 and the area has been in almost continuous production ever since. The gold resource of Marmato was so significant that Simon Bolivar, the revolutionary leader who liberated much of South America from Spanish rule, used the mines as collateral with British banks to secure funding for a war of independence against Spain.
The various areas of the Marmato mountain were consolidated in 2009 and 2010 by Medoro: the Zona Alta exploration project, the Zona Baja mine and the Echandia exploration project to the north. The Zona Baja mine currently produces about 25,000 ounces of gold annually. The consolidation of the different areas means the company is in a position to explore, develop and, subject to feasibility and permitting, mine the deposit as a whole. The ability to explore and drill the structure from all three license areas, including from underground, significantly improves the potential to increase and upgrade the gold resources at Marmato.
In June 2012, the company announced a National Instrument 43-101 compliant Measured and Indicated resource of 11.8 million ounces of gold and 2.6 million ounces of gold in inferred resources with a 0.3 g/t Au cut-off grade based on 216,000 metres of drilling. The resource statement included an estimated Measured and Indicated resource of 80.3 million ounces of silver and 9.4 million ounces of silver if Inferred resource. Other areas of gold mineral potential exist within the company’s concessions providing the potential to expand the resource and mine life at Marmato.
The Company has completed a new deep zone that contains approximately 300 million tonnes of potential mineralization, and is not represented in the current total resource estimate at Marmato as described above. These findings extend mineralization trends to approximately 700 metres below the limit of the current preliminary pit outline, and a minimum of 200 metres wide and widening to over 600 meters with depth. This mineralization zone is open at depth and is open along strike in both directions.
Gran Colombia is working towards the development of a modern large scale gold mining operation. A pre-feasibility study is currently being prepared by international engineering firm Hatch Ltd.