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The Tambor Project is an orogenic lode gold deposit located in central Guatemala. A grass roots discovery made by Radius in 2001, the property has NI 43-101 compliant resources of 57,800 ounces of gold in the indicated resource category (456,000 tonnes @ 3.94g/t Au) and 216,000 ounces gold in the inferred resource category (2.5 M tonnes @ 2.641 g/t Au), in 3 separate zones with a combined strike length of about 1000m.
Radius has entered into an agreement with accredited engineering firm Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) to develop Tambor into a small producing mine. Initially production will start at approximately 150 tonnes per day from both underground and surface pits.
Terms of the agreement are as follows: Radius owns 100% of the project and KCA can earn a 51% interest by spending a total of $6.5M on the property within 4 years through staged annual expenditures, or by putting the property into production within 4 years. Once KCA has earned its 51%, a joint venture will be formed between KCA and Radius.
For more information on KCA please feel free to visit their website at www.kcareno.com.
Location and Access
The Tambor project is located 30km northeast, or 45 minutes drive, from Guatemala City close to the town of San Jose de Golfo. The project is accessible by road followed by a 15 minute walk to the exploration trenches. A power line runs through property.
History
Tambor hosts an orogenic lode gold belt, discovered by Radius in 2000 and advanced by Gold Fields under joint venture with Radius up to late 2003. As the operator of the joint venture, Gold Fields significantly increased the land holdings at Tambor and made several new gold discoveries on the property. During 2003, they drill tested the Guapinol, La Laguna, Poza del Coyote and Cliff zones completing over 60 holes and defining a 270,000 ounce resource. In all, Gold Field's spent close to $4-million on the property up to October 2003 when Radius announced the purchase of Gold Fields' interest in the property for 1.3-million common shares in Radius.
The Tambor property has been mapped in detail at various scales, over 9,000 soil and 7,000 rock samples have been collected along a 25km long belt, and 32 hand trenches have been excavated over the main Guapinol south trend. This work defined 2 parallel east-west trending +50ppb gold-in-soil anomalies over a 7km trend between Laguna North and Guapinol South, and exposed veins at Guapinol returning grades up to 31 g/t Au over 10m. Visible gold is abundant in many trenches.
Core drilling in 2003 was restricted to the main area of interest at Guapinol South and Poza del Coyote, where 4983m was drilled in 44 holes, to test 750m strike length. At Laguna North, located 5km to the west, 2483m of RC drilling was conducted in 16 holes over a strike length of 300m.
Drill results from Guapinol South include: 80 g/t Au over 5m in PRDD-03-33; 45 g/t Au over 4.5m in PRDD-03-27; and 17 g/t Au over 3m in PRDD-03-39. Poza del Coyote results include: 28 g/t Au over 3m in PRRC-03-004; and15 g/t Au over 14m in PRRC-03-008. And Laguna North results include: 8 g/t Au over 18m in BVRC-02-002; and 2 g/t Au over 18m in BVRC-02-015. A 3D Induced Polarization geophysical orientation survey was also completed.
In early December 2004, Radius signed a joint venture agreement covering Tambor with Fortuna Ventures. Fortuna subsequently acquired the Caylloma silver mine in Peru and refocused on becoming a producing silver company. Radius thus retained a 100% interest in the project.
In 2007 an exploration tunnel was driven in the Guapinol South area, with a total of 356.5m of development. The primary objective of the underground work is to better understand the main structural control on the quartz-gold mineralization, specifically to gain a better understanding of the orientation and continuity of the mineralization.and hence the potential to develop additional resources. The tunneling tested the continuity of the 80.5g/t Au over 5.3m high grade intercept in drill hole PDD-03-033, from the Goldfields 2003 drilling. Five crosscuts, with centerlines on average 12.5m apart, intersected the vein, showing vein continuity over a 53m strike length and open both to the East and West. Wider vein intercepts are seen in the eastern three crosscuts, and thin veins in the two western ones. In the two western crosscuts, CW-1 and CW-2, the vein is thinner at the waist level mapping done, but is thicker along the roof, as a result of the southeast plunge of the vein, with the bulk of the vein being above the tunnel level. There is consistent visible gold in the vein in the different crosscuts. The main tunnel intercepted the PDD-03-033 drill intercept, with the drill hole visible in the tunnel roof. The grades in the main crosscut are summarized below.
Main tunnel
East wall 74.52 g/t Au over 3.4m (est. 3.28m true width)
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Main tunnel
West wall 77.69 g/t Au over 2.4m est. 2.32m true width)
Geology
Regional Setting
Tambor is hosted by a metamorphosed Cretaceous to Tertiary ophiolite sequence of volcanics and sediments, which form an east-west trending belt of strongly sheared, folded and foliated greenstones, phyllites, limestones and minor intrusives, related to collision of the Caribbean and North American Tectonic Plates. This orogenic belt is related to the Jocotan Suture Zone, which is associated with mineralization at Radius' Marimba and Banderas/Holly projects in Eastern Guatemala, as well as hosting the Zopolote and Vueltas del Rio gold deposits in Honduras.
Multiple zones of gold mineralization occur along a 25km corridor of anomalous gold-in-soil geochemistry within the Tambor property. The main zones of interest are the Laguna North, Guapinol South, and Poza del Coyote areas, which were drill tested in 2003 and form the basis of the +200,000 ounce gold resource estimate. Additional untested zones occur over the 5km distance between Laguna North and Guapinol South, and along a parallel trend about 1km to the north.
Mineralization and Alteration
Mineralization occurs as native gold closely associated with arsenopyrite (+/-chlorite) in boudinaged quartz veins, silicified wall rock and tectonic breccias. The quartz is typically massive, fine grained and waxy to sucrosic, typical of mesothermal vein systems. Visible gold is often seen in core and trenches and preliminary metallurgical testing indicates that the gold is free milling.
There is very little obvious hydrothermal alteration associated with the veins. Scorodite is locally abundant within arsenopyrite rich veins, but there is little wall rock alteration to speak of beyond minor clay +/- carbonate formation in the phyllites or greenstones.
Vein Types
There are 2 vein types at Tambor. At Guapinol, the main gold bearing veins are generally sub vertical and discordant to regional north dipping foliation, whereas flatter foliation parallel veins are typically lower grade or barren. Gold bearing veins are typically 1 to 4m wide and have been intersected up to 120m down dip and 300m along strike. Grades are high, ranging up to 80 g/t Au over a 5m intercept (in drill hole PRDD-03-33) with a global weighted average intercept of 13.7 g/t Au over a 3.8m average width.
Veins of all types are generally boudinaged, and the veins are typically sheared or broken along contacts. Brecciated contacts make clear definition of the vein orientation difficult.
Mineralized Zones
The Guapinol South zone consists of one or more east-west trending veins which crop out discontinuously over about 700m strike length. The veins appear to dip steeply to the south at the western end (Guapinol South) but dip moderately to the north at the eastern end (Poza del Coyote).
Structural analysis suggests that the veins were localized by faulted fold hinges or kink bands in foliated and thrusted phyllites. Foliation dips moderately to the north, parallel to regional thrust faults and the main veins appear to be discordant. The veins are strongly deformed and boudinaged, and appear to have a lensoidal shape which is more continuous along strike, forming long rods which plunge to the south-east.
Laguna North is located about 5km west of Guapinol South. Mineralization style is generally similar, with veins defined over 300m strike length, but foliation is oriented east-west and the veins form an arcuate pattern, open to the north-west and plunging moderately to the north-west, suggesting a fold hinge control on mineralization.
Resource Estimate
A National Instrument 43-101 compliant Resource Estimate (PDF, 4.5MB), conducted by Chlumsky, Armbrust and Meyer, focused on the 3 areas mentioned above, and returned a fairly conservative estimate of 57,800 ounces gold in the indicated category, and 216,200 ounces gold in the inferred category. The report also stated that "It is considered likely that the current resource could be doubled or tripled or even more with a concerted drilling program."
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission limits disclosure for U.S. reporting purposes to mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use certain terms on this website such as "reserves", "resources", "geologic resources", "proven", "probable", "measured", "indicated" or "inferred", which may not be consistent with the reserve definitions established by the SEC. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No. 001-32556. You can review and obtain copies of these filings from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.
Planned Work
The Company is currently looking for a partner to advance the Tambor property. Given the high-grade, narrow nature of the shoots at Gupainol South, the "starter-pit" potential at Lagunas Norte, and the exploration upside throughout the property, a combined small-scale production/exploration scenario should be investigated.
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Maps
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