Gold Reserve to bulk sample Las Brisas

Spokane-based Gold Reserve (TSX: GLR.A) has hired a mining contractor to extract a bulk sample from its Las Brisas copper-gold project in southeast Venezuela's Bolivar state, the company said in a statement. The sample, of some 750t, will be used for a large scale Cominco Engineering Services Limited (CESL) test, it said, and processed into a concentrate. The test results will provide final feasibility level data for metal recovery, sizing, engineering and design of the CESL plant. In addition, the test will provide data for predictable reagent consumption and operating and capital cost estimates for a bankable feasibility study on Las Brisas, the statement said. If successful, implementation of the CESL process would increase the return on payable metal and eliminate significant transportation costs for the gold-copper concentrate to an out-of-country smelter, Gold Reserve said. The company also said it is advancing with a mine reserve analysis and long-term production schedule for the project, and has expanded the scope of a study that was due this month to include separate reserve analysis for the CESL process as well as a conventional smelter process case. Preliminary pit designs are expected to be completed in June and the final report is due in the third quarter, with the information to be incorporated into the bankable feasibility and economic analysis, it said. According to a previous estimate, Las Brisas, the Yukon-registered company's sole development project, contains a resource of 9.9Moz gold with proven and probable reserves of 6.67Moz gold and 395,000t copper.