Blackheath Resources (BHR.V) has announced the results of a sampling program focused on the Prainelas area at the Vale das Gatas project which once was Portugal’s second largest producer of tungsten until it shut down in 1986. Of interest is the 7.28% grab sample which was taken from the waste dumps at the project which also contained traces of zinc and approximately half an ounce of silver per tonne. As all grab samples encountered a relatively substantial silver grade, Vale das Gatas seems to be shaping up as a tungsten-silver project rather than a tungsten-tin project as grades of up to 6.5oz/t silver were encountered. Further down the road, it would be very interesting to see what kind of recovery rate the company could obtain for the silver, as the average silver grade of the 16 samples is just over 3 ounces per tonne.
These grab samples are highly encouraging and warrant further exploration work at the project, which we expect to be conducted later this year. Blackheath can earn a 100% interest in the project by incurring 220,000 EUR in exploration expenditures in the first two years and 1.1MEUR in milestone payments (of which 1M EUR is only payable when the mine starts producing again).
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