"Constitution Mining Begins Production Testing on Gold Sands Project in Peru
Lima, Peru - October 26, 2009 - Constitution Mining Corp. (CMIN.OB) announces the continuation of the Bangka drilling and test pitting program at its Gold Sands project in northeast Peru. In addition to the above program, the Company is evaluating geophysical methods to better define the location of the mineralized sands and gravels. The goal is to more accurately assess whether the economic recoverability of gold is possible from the alluvial sands and gravels of the Company’s 382 square kilometer (230 square mile) project area.
The pitting is being carried out by one 6-man crew that manually excavates the test pits to a depth of up to 6 meters. Where a Bangka drill hole intersects significant mineralization, the crew will excavate a pit measuring 1.5-meter square to the gravel horizon. A one cubic meter (approximately 3 ton) sample is collected and processed on site producing a concentrate from which the gold is recovered at Constitution’s laboratory in Saramiriza. At the laboratory, the recovered gold is weighed and a calculated grade in milligrams per cubic meter is determined.
The purpose of the pitting and drilling is to determine an accurate gold grade. The quantity of gold collected from the excavated material should reflect the amount of gold that would potentially be recovered in a full scale dredging operation. Samples from each pit will also be sent to an independent commercial laboratory to determine the fineness of the gold grains and trace element analysis including silver.
Pitting will progress by following the path of drilling on selected traverses across the Company’s 380 square kilometer Gold Sands property. The Company intends to announce results from the Bangka drilling and test pitting as they become available during the coming weeks.
Gary Artmont, Constitution Mining’s CEO, commented: “Locally, informal miners are busy in the area digging from surface and processing gold using sluice boxes and monitors. We will use our drills to locate the gold-enriched gravel and sand and then dig pits to accurately measure the amounts of recoverable gold.”
“It’s an exercise that is intended to leave little doubt about the gold grades present. For our purposes, the method provides a high level of reliability, since there’s not much difference between pitting results and recovery from a full-scale dredging operation.”
Artmont continued: “Drilling isn’t enough. Alluvial deposits characteristically are erratic. So there is no sense in relying on 6” wide drill cores regardless of how encouraging they may look. The only prudent way to assess the economic viability of an alluvial project is to hopefully produce gold from large bulk samples.”