Continental Gold Exceeds Gold Estimates in Latest Trial Mining Test at Buriticá

Canadian gold mining company Continental Gold Inc. (TSX: CNL | OTCQX: CGOOF) announced yesterday that it exceeded extraction expectations in its latest trial mining test at its Buriticá gold mine in Colombia.

In its second test of this type, two slopes in the Yaraguá system in the department of Antioquia were mined using the mechanized long-hole method to yield 8.60 grams of gold per tonne compared to a production estimate of 7.34 grams per tonne.

READ MORE: Continental Gold Begins Drilling at Buriticá for First Time in Two Years

This was a 17% increase compared to the company’s resource model and a 49% increase over the estimate in terms of contained gold ounces (with 1,652 ounces of gold recovered in 4,627 tonnes mined) given the larger volume of total tonnes extracted.

The silver yield was even higher beyond Continental Gold’s estimates. The actual silver yield of 18 grams per was 26% above expectations and the contained silver ounces (2,678 ounces) was 62% above the prediction.

Stacked trial stope, which is “demonstrating excellent blast control and clean breakage along the mineralized contact,” said Continental Gold in a statement. (Credit: Continental Gold)

“This is an impressive outcome as it is the second trial mining test completed by the company and both have yielded significantly more ounces of precious metals than we estimated from the mineral resource block model,” said Ari Sussman, CEO of Continental Gold.

He added that the “vertical extent” of ore extracted from the two slopes is approximately five meters longer than the figures projected by Continental Gold’s the feasibility study from February 2016. “As a result, our team is planning to evaluate designing larger stopes for production in 2020, which in turn would potentially reduce the amount of total underground development required.”

Photo: The Higabra Valley Tunnel at Continental Gold’s Buriticá goldmine in Antioquia, Colombia. (Credit: Continental Gold)