El Quevar
Drill Results and 43-101 Resource Estimates
The company controls mineral and surface rights to approximately 55,000 hectares at its 100% controlled El Quevar silver project. The Company has conducted significant drilling at El Quevar, and as of early 2013 more than 400 drill holes have been completed representing over 100,000 meters.
The most recent Canadian National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant resource estimate for El Quevar was completed in June 2012 by Pincock Allen & Holt and utilized 270 holes comprising just over 69,000 meters of drilling with an average hole depth of 256 meters. This resource estimate reported 32.0 million ounces of silver in the indicated category at a grade of 141 grams per tonne, plus 30.2 million ounces of silver in the inferred category at a grade of 152 grams per tonne of silver. The Pincock resource estimate used a more conservative assay capping strategy than the previous 2010 resource estimate conducted by Micon International Limited. Pincock capped silver values at three times the standard deviation, confirmed by probability plots, for each Contact Domain. Pincock then compared the capped and uncapped assay data and found that such capping reduced the average silver grade in the deposit by 15 percent. Mineralization was also constrained to a 10 ppm Ag grade shell within the alteration envelope.
In late 2012, Golden began an additional 16-hole, 2,400-meter drilling program. This drilling was conducted in Quevar Sud and Quevar Norte areas that were not included in the Pincock Allen & Holt 2012 resource estimate. Targets were selected based on surface samples and geology in the search for additional silver resources. Results have been received for 13 of the 16 drill holes and include:
- Drill hole QVD-378 located one kilometer (km) east of the previously defined Yaxtché deposit: intersected eight meters (drill width) with an average grade of 779 grams per tonne silver (25 ounces per ton: 779 parts per million (ppm)) from 25 meters to 33 meters. The intercept is located along the Yaxtché mineralized trend and may represent a significant extension of the deposit.
- Drill hole QVD-383 is a 475 meter step out along the Quevar North structure that hosts the previously-described Sharon target, located approximately 5 km north of the Yaxtché deposit: cut a three meter interval (drill width) grading 374 grams per tonne silver (12 ounces per ton: 374 ppm) from 27 meters to 30 meters within a broader zone of six meters averaging 229 ppm silver from 24 meters to 30 meters.
The program’s positive results support Golden’s long-held belief that El Quevar exhibits characteristics of an emerging new silver district.
Summary of Indicated and Inferred Resources,
Yaxtché
Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources in this estimation are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define an indicated mineral resource on the property, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in discovery of an indicated or measured mineral resource on the property.
The mineral resources in this estimate were calculated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council on December 11, 2005.
Under standards promulgated by the SEC,
a deposit reported as "mineralized material" does not qualify as a reserve until comprehensive evaluation, based upon unit costs, grade, recoveries, and other factors concludes economic and legal feasibility. The Yaxtché deposit
may never be classified as reserves under SEC standards and
it may not be economically feasible to extract any portion
of the deposit.
Cautionary Note regarding Estimates
of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources: The United
States Securities and Exchange Commission permits mining
companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only
those mineral deposits that a company can economically and
legally extract or produce. We use certain terms in this
presentation, such as “indicated” and “inferred resources” that the SEC guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in our filings with the SEC. US investors are cautioned not to assume that any or all of measured, indicated or inferred resources are economically or legally mineable or that these resources will ever be converted into reserves. US investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 10-K and other SEC filings. You can review and obtain copies of these filings from the SEC’s
website at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.
