CEO RAMBLINGS - FEBRUARY 25, 2019
First I wish to make one point as clearly as I can. While there are some very encouraging signs that gold exists on Atacama's gold properties I have always maintained that considerably more exploration work is absolutely necessary to determine if quality/quantity gold exists that would warrant mining and milling the gold in the ground. More exploration is key. But, there are encouraging signs.
For example, you know that there have been producing gold mines operating all around Atacama's gold properties in years past. Accurate results are available from all of these mines including the average gold values found at each mine site. As stated earlier (I used ounces per ton measurements) in Ramblings they were Old Swastika Mine- 5.96 grams per ton, Lucky Cross Mine- 9.20 grams /ton, Tech-Hughes mine- 10.79 grams/ton, Maccasa Mine-12.49 grams/ton, Lake Shore Mine- 14.48 grams/ton and Tegran Mine-22.15 grams/ton and I could go on and on. Now, what do these average gold value numbers, taken from old producing mines surrounding today's Atacama properties, mean? How good are these numbers?
Let’s compare them to today’s highest grade operating gold mines in the world. These are the richest in the world and there are hundreds of gold mines operating at much lower gold values. I get this information from Mining Intelligence referring to values from 2017. First, figures from the best underground gold mines. Fosterville Mine(Australia) 21.50 grams/ton. This is the most valuable in the world and owned by Kirkland Lake. Yaramoko Mine(Burkina Faso) 17.60 grams/ton, Segovia Mine(Colombia) 17.48 grams/ton, Cerro Negro mine(Argentina) 16.74 grams/ton and Turquise Mine(USA) 15.22 grams/ton.
Highest global grades from open pit gold mines are represented by Way Lingo Mine(Indonesia) 7.60 grams/ton, Mt. Carlton Mine(Australia) 5.86 grams/ton, Albazinc Mine(Russia) 5.10 grams/to, Pueblo Viejom Mine(Dom. Rep) 4.52 grams/ton and Counkoto Mine(Mali) 4.50 grams/ton. While I am the first to say that way more exploration is required on Atacama's gold properties you can see from the above information why I am so excited. I am Glenn grant, CEO of www.acrintl.com