www.sohoresources.ca
Soho Resources is a Canadian-based junior resource company focused on exploring and developing the Tahuehueto gold-silver project in northwestern Durango State, Mexico.
The 9,081-hectare property covers at least 12 mineralized zones hosted within a structurally controlled epithermal system that has been traced for more than 6 km. Exploration programs have confirmed significant gold-silver mineralization with associated base metals at many of these zones.
Soho Resources reports high gold-silver-copper-lead-zinc recovery grades at Tahuehueto
Soho Resources Corp (TSX-V: SOH) said that metallurgical testing results from the Tahuehueto project in Mexico showed recovery grades of 85.6% gold, 90.1% silver, 87.9% copper, 86.7% lead and 88.1% zinc, while the value of contained metals amounted to US$195 per tonne.
Back in October, the company prepared five metallurgical composites from diamond drill core samples from the Tahuehueto project which were prepared to reflect the known resource grades as determined in the most recent mineral resource calculation.
The overall composite, representing the weighted average of the contribution of each of the four individual zone composites to the total mineral resource, contained metals valued at US$195/t, equally split between precious and base metals.
Recent flotation tests performed on the composites returned recovery grades of 85.6% gold, 90.1% silver, 87.9% copper, 86.7% lead and 88.1% zinc for the overall composite. Average recovery grades from the Cinco de Mayo, El Creston, El Perdido and El Catorce zones amounted to 86.2% gold, 82% silver, 82.2% copper, 94.6% lead and 75.8% zinc.
As a result, it has been determined that 77% of the lead has been recovered into a flotation concentrate grading 53.9% lead, 96 g/t (grammes per tonne) gold, 1,007 g/t silver, 7.86% copper and 8.1% zinc. The company said that initial testing to separate the bulk copper/lead concentrate was encouraging and partially successful. The copper concentrate graded 10% copper, 50 g/t gold, 1,154 g/t silver, 4.6% lead and 22% zinc. Despite the zinc grade being grater than copper grade, the product will be marketed as a copper concentrate, Soho said in the statement.
Ongoing testing is evaluating the potential to shift the 7% of the zinc that reports to the copper concentrate into the zinc flotation circuit, since otherwise it is a diluent in the copper concentrate, and in effect could becomea penalty component.
Soho said that the zinc cleaner stage concentrate containing 63% of the zinc and grading 55.3% zinc was of a good marketable grade.
Future testing will investigate the role of finer primary grinding than the previous 40-60% passing 200 mesh, alternative dosages of the above depressant, alternative depressants to improve the distribution of the base metals into their respective concentrates and the potential to achieve improved results by separately producing material from the four zones.
Soho has recently engaged Snowden Mining Industry Consultants to complete a NI 43-101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on the project. The study will utilize an NI 43-101 compliant resource completed in 2009, which calculated a Measured and Indicated resource of 7.4 Mt (million tonnes) averaging approximately 2.1 g/t gold, 35 g/t silver, 0.28% copper, 1.06% lead and 2% zinc. Tahuehueto also hosts a further 4.8 million tonnes in the inferred category (1.06 g/t gold, 31.77 g/t silver, 0.23% copper, 1.13% lead and 2.26% zinc). The measured, indicated and inferred resource used a cut-off grade of 2 g/t gold equivalent.
The revised calculation covers mineralization in six zones on the property, but primarily in the El Creston, El Catorce and Cinco de Mayo zones.
Tahuehueto is Soho’s primary focus. The company also has another polymetallic property in Mexico, Jocuixtita.
