Sunridge Gold says Asmara contains 1.27 bln pounds of copper, unveils new Gupo resource

Sunridge Gold Corp. (CVE:SGC)(OTCQX:SGCNF) Tuesday received the final resource estimate update for the Gupo gold deposit in Eritrea, the fourth deposit that forms the basis of the Asmara North prefeasibility study.
Total contained metal at the Asmara project, on a measured and indicated basis, now stands at 1.27 billion pounds of copper, 2.6 billion pounds of zinc, 930,000 ounces of gold and 28.36 million ounces of silver.
Total measured and indicated resources at Asmara amount to 76.09 million tonnes.
The Asmara North deposits include the Emba Derho volcanogenic-massive-sulphide (VMS) copper-zinc-gold deposit, the Adi Nefas zinc-gold-copper VMS deposit and the Gupo gold deposit.
The prefeasibility study for Asmara North is also considering the possibility of processing ore from the Debarwa copper-zinc-gold VMS deposit at Asmara at a centralized mill near the Emba Derho deposit. This study is expected to be complete later in April.
In January, the company said it expects a feasibility study for the Debarwa copper-zinc-gold-silver deposit at Asmara in the first quarter of this year, which will examine the potential for a stand-alone open-pit mine and process plant at the deposit over a seven year mine life.
"All four deposits on Sunridge's Asmara project now have updated NI 43-101 compliant resource estimates completed as part of the current prefeasibility study on the Asmara North and the feasibility study on Debarwa," Sunridge president and CEO Michael Hopley said.
"We expect that most of these resources will be converted to reserves in the preliminary feasibility study and management looks forward to a very positive study."
Gupo is the smallest of the four deposits on the Asmara project and is being examined in the prefeasibility study as a possible source of feed for a centralized gold recovery plant that would include the gold caps from the Emba Derho and Debarwa deposits.
The new resource estimate at Gupo gave an indicated resource of 951,800 tonnes at a cut-off grade of 0.5 grams per tonne gold (g/t), with an average grade of 1.53 g/t containing 46,780 ounces of gold.
Gold mineralization at Gupo extends intermittently over a strike length of approximately 1.6 kilometres and is associated with stockwork quartz veins and a sericite alteration halo controlled by a shear zone 10 to 30 metres in width.
The deposit crops out at surface where there are several shallow pits resulting from artisanal mining during the Italian colonial period. Drilling by Sunridge has shown mineralization to extend up to 150 metres vertically from surface and in many locations is open to depth, the company said.
In February, Sunridge unveiled significantly increased resources for both the Emba Derho and Adi Nefas deposits.
Sunridge is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the acquisition, exploration, discovery and development of base and precious metal projects on the Asmara project in Eritrea and exploration properties in Madagascar.
Full details of Asmara's resources can be found on the Sunridge Gold website: http://www.sunridgegold.com