Latin America-focused precious metals miner Minera IRL (LON:MIRL,TSX:IRL) this morning announced a significant resource upgrade at its Don Nicolas project in Santa Cruz, Argentina. Measured and indicated resource in the combined ‘high and low grade’ category is now 381,000 ounces of gold, which represents an 89 per cent increase in these categories compared to a previous resource estimate made by Hidefield Gold in 2009. An additional 149,000 ounces is contained in the ‘inferred resource’ category (with the lower cut-off grade at 0.3 grams per tonne). In the ‘high grade’ category alone, the measured and indicated resource is 1,461,000 tonnes grading at six grams per tonne of gold and 13.4 grams per tonne of silver, for 280,000 ounces of gold and 630,000 ounces of silver. High grade represents 74 per cent of the total measured and indicated resource. Minera said that this is the basis for the Don Nicolas feasibility study that is due for completion later this year. In the ‘low grade’ (below 1.6 grams per tonne) category, the measured and indicated resource is an additional 4.2 million tonnes grading at 0.8 grams per tonne of gold and 3.9 grams per tonne of silver for 102,000 ounces and 516,000 ounces respectively. This forms the basis for potential future low grade treatment, such as heap leaching. “We are extremely pleased with the results of our first resource estimate on the Don Nicolas Project since we acquired Hidefield in late 2009,” said Courtney Chamberlain, Minera’s executive chairman. “This is the culmination of a major programme of infill and extension drilling of almost 23,000 metres over the past year and a half. The plus 1.6 grams per tonne gold high grade resource is of particular importance.” Chamberlain added that the epithermal veins that make up the resource have only been drilled to a fairly shallow depth and most of the mineralisation can be mined by open pit methods. “Most of the precious metal veins remain open and untested down-dip and thus offer excellent future upside potential,” he said. “We have also identified a number of new outcropping veins very close to the defined resources that will form the basis for ongoing brownfields exploration.” Two vein field districts make up Don Nicolas – La Paloma and Martinetas – and the reported resource is made up of nine vein systems. At Paloma, resources have been defined at the Sulfuro, Arco Iris, Ramal Sulfuro and Rocio veins, while Martinetas consists of five vein swarms contained in the Coyote, Cerro Oro, Armadillo, Lucia and Calafate deposits, said the firm. Minera said that this latest resource estimate supersedes the resource inventory that was inherited when Minera bought Hidefield in late 2009, although it pointed out that that estimate was based on a lower cut-off grade of one gram per tonne of gold so the two estimates are not directly comparable. Recently, Minera announced that gold production across its business for the quarter to the end of June was ahead of budget. On Monday, the firm said it produced 8,775 ounces of gold during Q2 2011, which was 8.4 per cent greater than that produced during Q2 2010.

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