B R A M A D E R O S
Please explain a bit more the ongoing exploration works in Bramaderos. At Bramaderos we are undertaking exploration at various scales – both district scale and more specific work on defined targets. We are building up drill targets that will be tested as soon as we receive a drill permit. The targets are both large gold-copper porphyry targets and smaller epithermal gold targets. We are doing a lot of soil sampling, geological mapping, and trenching. The trenching is proving to be particularly successful because the mineralised systems are at surface, and so the trenching allows us to gain a better understanding of the geometry of the gold and copper bearing zones. This work reduces the risk profile of the next most important phase, drilling. How many people is currently working in Bramaderos?
Around 30 people. Once we start drilling that number should go up to 50.
Can Bramaderos be a world-class mine? It’s too early to tell but we are in this business to discover significant orebodies. This is a business and so we are positioning ourselves where we think the likelihood of success of delivering a major discovery is the greatest, and providing strong returns to shareholders, communities, and stakeholders and making sure we do this in a socially responsible manner. What’s the investment expectation during 2018 in Ecuador? This is dependent upon us receiving a drill permit in a timely manner, and assuming we are drilling in Q1 2018 then we are likely to spend US$2-3 million during 2018. If the drilling is successful then expenditure will increase significantly after that. I N F O R M E 33 / i
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