Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. is a mining company presently operating a surface gold-processing plant at its 100% owned Molejon Gold Project. Commercial production began on January 8, 2010.
Anticipated throughout the project for the first year of production will be 2,200 tonnes per day and the plant will utilize three ball mills and a carbon-in-pulp processing facility.
Plans are in place to increase production to 5,000 tonnes per day with the addition of a SAG mill as the supply of mill feed permits.
Project Overview
Since 1998 Petaquilla has concentrated on upgrading a pre-National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101″), the 1998 AMEC resource estimate, to NI 43-101 standards while concurrently embarking on aggressive drill programs in order to increase resources.
A study completed by Steffan, Robertson & Kirsten (‘SRK’) on October 26, 2005 established an inferred resource on the Molejon Project of 11.2 million tonnes grading 2.48 grams per tonne for total contained resource of 893,000 oz gold using a bottom cut-off grade of 0.500 grams per tonne Au.
The SRK study increased the resource estimate by 35% over the 1995 pre 43-101 AMEC estimate of 7.8 million tonnes grading 2.63 grams per tonne for a total contained resource of 661,000 oz gold using a bottom cut-off grade of 0.500 grams per tonne Au.
Petaquilla continued to enlarge and firm up the resource based on the Molejon Project in 2006 with a 14,005 meter drill program of which 11,398 meters (81.38%) was devoted to infill drilling to confirm the SRK estimate and move the resource from Inferred to the Measured and Indicated categories. The program also involved 980 meters of condemnation drilling to establish the location of the plant site. A mere 1,627 meters was devoted to exploration drilling which increased the overall ounces by an impressive 25%.
The subsequent audit of the 2006 drill program by AAT released by Petaquilla on April 10, 2007 increased overall resources by 25% and upgraded the resource calculation as follows:
PTQ.TSX News: April 10/07 “The new resource calculation outlines 447,879 ounces of Measured resources, 161,379 ounces of Indicated resources and 506,294 ounces of Inferred resources at the Molejon Gold deposit AAT Mining Services has also estimated that 179,934 ounces of the Measured and Indicated ounces contained in the low-grade material have potential for blending with the high-grade to achieve an optimum mill feed without loss of resources. Moreover, drilling confirmed the high-grade area of 1.667 mm tonnes grading 5.0 grams per tonne at a cutoff grade of 2.5 grams per tonne.”
In addition to the increased resource estimate for the Molejon deposit, a new 200-meter strike length of high-grade mineralization was encountered in the Central Zone. Additional trenching has confirmed management’s belief that the Molejon resource is larger than previously anticipated.
The Central Zone was tested with an additional 26 trenches. The Zone consists of quartz breccia; pervasive silica alteration and quartz stockwork hosted in a feldspar porphyry intrusive or andesite.
The trenches in the Central Zone delineated a 400-meter strike length, which included a 200-meter strike length of high-grade mineralization.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.
Phone: (604) 694-0021 Fax: (604) 694-0063
Toll free: 1-877-694-0021
http://www.petaquilla.com
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