Feb 8 2017
Para Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "Para") (TSX VENTURE:PBR)(WKN:A14YF1)(OTC PINK:PRSRF) announces that the second ball mill (BM2) at El Limon which was installed in late December is now operational. The delay in starting operations was due to manufacturer defects in the ball mill transmission. Once the issues were identified, the transmission was sent to Medellin for analysis and repair. The transmission was re-installed on February 2nd and has now been tested. Process operations on BM 2 commenced on February 6th.
Plant through-put is expected to increase to 165 tons per day ("TPD") of a combination of rock mined from El Limon and historical tailings. Processing of mineralized rock sourced from local artisanal miners and from the OTU properties acquired by Para in July 2016, is expected to commence in March 2017.
Production in November from Ball Mill 1 (BM1) was 116 ounces from 1,146 tons of through-put for an average of 38 TPD. In December BM1 achieved 1,480 tons of through put for an average of 49 TPD, a 29% month over month increase. Gold production in December was 185 ounces, a 59.5% increase from the previous month. Production through put for BM 1 during January was 41.2 TPD yielding 159.5 ounces of gold. In February, BM2 is expected to achieve average through-put of 135 TPD to bring total production from both mills to 175 TPD. The combined production from BM 1 and 2 is expected to increase to 200 TPD with gold production climbing to 1,200 ounces per month by mid-2017.
Ian Harris, the Company's President states, "We are pleased to have the second ball mill operational at El Limon. We have had a few set backs with equipment issues but we now have the installed capacity to produce 200 TPD. We are advancing with the formalization of the small artisanal mines on the OTU Property we acquired last year and expect that process to be completed in Q2 of 2017. The formalization of the mining permits will provide El Limon with additional high grade feed material which we expect will increase the average overall head grade. In the meantime, we are processing a combination of feed material extracted from the El Limon mine (approximately 50 TPD) and processing of the El Limon historical tailings."
ABOUT EL LIMON
The El Limon property is located in the northwest part of Colombia near the town of Zaragoza, Antioquia, Colombia and is accessible via both paved highways and gravel roads. The mine is situated in the wide Zaragoza Gold District which extends from El Bagre to Remedios and based on the historical alluvium mining and the number of primary underground gold mines, is considered to be one of the most prolific gold zones in Colombia. The El Limon claims cover a total area of approximately 21,000 hectares, including 129.6 hectares in RPP No. 12011 and 191.1 hectares in the concession contract No. 620 which is located west of the currently exploited zone.
Typical production grades of the region range from 8-12 g/t Au diluted. However, higher grade mines do exist, such as Quintana and El Limon mines at 8-29 g/t Au diluted. Vein widths are typically below 1 m although both the hanging wall and the footwall zones can contain appreciable economic mineralization within the high-grade cores.
The El Limon mine is currently operating underground on Levels 6 and 7 where the diluted head grade continues to be high at approximately 8+ gpt Au. The vein system is open at depth but constrained at both ends by faults. Management believes the El Limon property offers multiple exploration targets that could significantly increase the life of the mine. It is management's intention to utilize some of the cash generated from mining, to drill the property to expand the number of targeted areas for mining.
Mr. Paulo J. Andrade, a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG #6136), Senior Geologist, VP and Country Manager for Para Resources, Inc., a CP/QP under NI-43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.