23 November 2010 – Pacific Comox Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:PCM) reports that the contract for the installation of the first test leach pad at the Mabel property has been signed. The preliminary site clearance and contouring is underway. This is being followed by the laying of the clay base for the geomembrane which will be followed by about a 0.3 meter layer of crushed and screened granodiorite filter material on which the mineralization to be leached will be placed.
The test leach pad installation with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes includes the pregnant pond, barren pond, emergency storage pond, fencing, and piping. The electric generators and back-up generators will be leased. Comox will expand its existing electrolytic recovery capacity. Based on contract bids and estimated costs for work to be done directly by Comox, working capital and contingency, the overall cost of the test is expected to be about US$500,000. Leaching is expected to start in one month.
This test leach pad of several thousand tonnes at the site follows 2 smaller test leaches: The cyanide leaching results of the first bulk sample of gold/silver mineralization at Mabel reported gold recovery of 77% and 59% for silver based on a 2.3 tonne sample of mineralization from a number of outcropping veins in the Carmelitas area of the Mabel property. The leach period was 16 days and the mineralization was crushed to 1.9 cm (0.75 inches). The head grade for Test # 1 was 2.1 grams/tonne (g/t) for gold and 61 g/t for silver.
A larger Test # 2 with a 12.9 tonne sample of mineralization from a number of outcropping lower grade veins on the Mabel property, crushed to a smaller size of 1.3 cm or 0.5 inches reported gold recovery of 70% and 55% for silver during a 16 day leach period. The head grade for Test # 2 was 1.4 grams/tonne (g/t) for gold and 35 g/t for silver.
Carmelitas has been an area of concentrated drilling to outline at/near surface gold/silver mineralization on a tighter drill spacing basis than the other 3 zones on Mabel. To-date 195 mineralized holes have been drilled in the Carmelitas Zone including 46 higher grade holes that averaged 2.9 g/t gold and 104 g/t silver, with an average mineralized interval of 4.5 meters.
Bhagwat Singh, P. Eng., serves as the qualified person (QP) for the exploration programs under the definitions of National Instrument 43-101. The geologist on the Mabel program is Cesar Lemas. A split sample of the feed and tails from the leach tests was collected by Company staff and shipped by Company staff to the ALS Chemex sample preparation facility at Hermosillo, Sonora which forwards prepared samples to the ALS Chemex Vancouver facility for assay.
– Donald Empey, President
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