maybe by the end of this year DEG will also be on the Canadian's (and others) radar screen. --------------------------------------------------------------------
May 24, 2011
Mariana Resources Closes In On A Maiden Gold Resource At Las Calandrias In Argentina.
By Alastair Ford / www.minesite.com
"We've just finished 30 kilometres of core drilling", says John Horsburgh, chairman of Mariana Resources. "Resource modelling is happening now. We expect a maiden resource by the end of the second quarter." As far as snapshots go, they don't come much better than that, but then John's an old hand at pitching a mining story. He cut his geological teeth at the Royal School of Mines more than 40 years ago, and then went straight into the field to work for, among others, Billiton, RTZ, and the minerals division of Getty.
Then it was onwards and upwards, via Solomon Pacific Resources and one or two others to Mariana, where he and former director John Sutcliffe jointly held the reins for several years. John S. has now stepped aside, "in line with plans to retire by 2012", according to the official announcement. He will be retained for now, in the short-term, as a principal geological consultant, and one wonders, given that some geos seem to find it hard to let go, whether he will ever step away completely. But as far as the public face is concerned, John Horsburgh's the man these days, and his infectious enthusiasm for all of Mariana's projects is hard to ignore. Because Mariana is one of those companies that just seems to have potential oozing out of its pores.
First off there's the Las Calandrias discovery itself. This is now rightly described as the flagship, and comprises two separate, but virtually heavily mineralised zones, Calandria Sur and Calandria Norte. Since September 2010 a total of 212 drill holes have gone into the property, with a view to generating the maiden resource that's now imminent. Exactly how that resource will shape up we can't know until the official announcement comes out, but a good ballpark estimate would be that it will contain around half a million ounces and show good potential for further growth. It will also, says John H., give considerable detail of metallurgical testwork done to date.
To put this into a slightly wider context, there's very little doubt that Mariana is in the right neck of the woods - it's not the only company that fancies the area as a potential good source of new gold projects. Directly to the south of Mariana's ground is Courtney Chamberlain's Minera IRL, a company which some in London reckon might eventually take out Mariana, assuming the price was right. After all, the mineralisation at Las Calandrias actually spills over onto Courtney's ground, and he may well be the beneficiary of a tasty amount of ounces that are part of the Calandria Sur structure. Courtney's got plenty going on elsewhere, though, and for now he's content to bide his time. But other companies in the neighbourhood are making rapid progress with projects of their own. These include Iamgold, Mirasol, Extorre and Hochschild.
And if that all sounds a bit Canadian-focussed, you'd be right. The Canadians have got this part of the world pretty sewn up, which is why Mariana is in the process of acquiring a Canadian listing. At this stage, it's not about funding, as there's around US$9.5 million in the bank already, but more about gaining traction among peers. Minera IRL recently took a Canadian listing, while Extorre, Mirasol and Iamgold are famous names already on the TSX. Lots of Toronto analysts have already been down to Las Calandrias, says John. On one recent site visit, conducted in conjunction with Extorre, the company played host to 55 people. So clearly, the interest is there.
Whether a TSX listing can do anything to reverse the gradual drift in the company's share price since January is another matter. But that's not specific to Mariana - it's a sector-wide malaise, flying in the face of the continued high gold price. In the case of Mariana, investors can look towards specific news events as potential triggers that will send the shares up again. First and most obvious is the new resource, and the remaining drill results from the 212 hole programme at Las Calandrias.
Then there's the results that will shortly start to come out of the company's other leading project, the Veta Chala discovery on the Sierra Blanca project, a hundred kilometres or so to the west of Las Calandrias. A new 5,000 metre drill programme has just got underway there. And after that there's the blue sky upside on the Chilean exploration programme, which includes potential for copper-gold-silver projects on the Maricunga Belt, and the potential for IOCG discoveries with joint venture partner Cliffs in northern Chile. John Sutcliffe has been taking a keen interest in this exploration portfolio recently. Any bets that if he makes a major discovery he'll still retire in 2012? We shall see.
DEG Price at posting:
4.2¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
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