Bralorne Gold Mines expands on its ultra high-grade gold system in Canada
Vancouver, June 18, 2012 (Financial Press): Canadian-based Bralorne Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX Venture : BPM) continues to receive excellent results from exploration, development and production work taking place between its past-producing gold mines located in Bralorne, British Columbia.
The property covers 2,490 hectares of gold mining territory in British Columbia about 150 miles north of Vancouver. The property hosts multiple gold-bearing zones and successfully produced gold during periods when gold prices were much lower than they are today.
Earlier today the company released encouraging results from its exploration, development and production from the latest discovery zones known as the BK zone and BK3. The results are consistent with the exceptionally high-grade gold discoveries on the property’s vein system and high-grade gold drifts that have been known to stretch across very long strike lengths.
Bralorne took 67 samples across the main structure at the property, the BK 3 Zone. The results of the sampling returned 160 metres of 68.7 grams gold per tonne (uncut) over 0.8 metres true thickness.
Once cut, the average grade fell slightly to a still-significant 27.1 grams per tonne, the true width stays the same and the highlight gold grade remained an exceptional grade of 51.4 grams per tonne gold. The exploration efforts included individual assays of the samples containing visible gold reaching as high 658.4 grams per tonne gold over a 0.4 m true thickness. These gold grades are exceptionally high and are consistent with the long history of gold mining at the Bralorne gold mining property.
Since mill start-up to the end of April, 2012, representing the first year of production is estimated at 5,726 ounces. Gold in doré smelted from the gravity concentrate totaled 3,536 ounces and gold in flotation concentrate is estimated at 2,190 ounces, with the balance of ounces being in-circuit inventory. The doré represents 61% of the recovered gold. At April 30, 24,130 dry tons had been milled at an average feed grade of 9.12 grams per tonne gold and an average recovery of 90.2%.
Mill throughput improved this quarter, with a 29% increase in daily operating throughput over the last 3 months compared to the first 9 months. The company is studying further ways to improve throughput and recovery to improve gravity gold recovery. The company has also retained Beacon Hill Consultants (An independent engineering firm) to evaluate the current operation and its resources to identify exploration and development requirements for substantially and increasing mill throughput from the existing 100 tons per day up to 250 tons per day. It is expected to have this substantially supporting technical document in early August of this year.
The Bralorne gold mining property and the surrounding areas were originally staked more than a century ago in 1896 during a prospecting rush in western North America. The area turned out to be one of the big success stories in the region. The property produced more than four million ounces of gold over the years and the gold mineralization on the project was in sufficient quantities and high enough grades to be successfully mined all the way up until 1971.
The mine, the property, and all the gold yet to be discovered was left largely dormant until advanced geological reconnaissance methods and new geological interpretations were applied. That’s where the modern Bralorne story begins.
In 1992 the Company’s management correctly foresaw a big opportunity in Bralorne if gold prices increased. The company acquired the historic King, Bralorne, Pioneer mining property and the significant gaps of property that lay between the historic mines, retired all the accumulated debts attached to the property, and what they discovered was an extremely rich vein system that included additional zones of gold-bearing mineralization which had never been properly explored. The rest of the development of the property has been marked by high-grade gold discovery after discovery.
Starting in 2004 Bralorne’s drilling efforts on the 51B FW vein produced the staggeringly high interception of mineralization containing a staggering 12.09 ounces per tonne gold.
In 2007 the company discovered a new vein on the property located between two of the past-producing gold mines on the property. Named the BK-3 Zone, exploration in the area returned exceptional gold mineralization throughout this new zone.
The New BK-3 Zone included a number of gold veins. The drilling and sampling of those veins demonstrated a significant gold trend exists with long intersections of high-grade gold. The exploration and sampling results from 2012 confirmed the pattern of consistently high and increasing gold intercepts which have also been getting longer.
Bralorne’s highlighted gold mineralization discoveries from this year alone include:
93.4 g/t gold over 71.9 metres
14.7 g/t gold over 13 metres
5.14 g/t gold over 5.2 metres
14.7 g/T gold over 13 metres
Bralorne Gold Mines has been a steadily evolving story over the years as it continues to discover more high-grade gold across long widths and all in new zones on the property.
The company has established an expanded exploration program for the rest of 2012. The program will consist of 5,400 metres of surface drilling and 3,875 metres of underground exploration drilling.
Bralorne Gold Mines trades on the TSX Venture under the symbol “BPM.” Its shares trade in the United States under the symbol “BPMSF.” The company currently has a market capitalization of approximately $21 million.
Learn more at Bralorne Gold Mine’s website
