Cálculo de reservas y estimación de recursos minerales de la veta venado del proyecto colibrí, Cantón Santa Isabel, Provincia del Azuay.

Abstract

The Colibri mining project is located in the Santa Isabel Canton; (Azuay province) and is under concession by the company Colibrimining. This project presents little geological information due to its recent discovery it is necessary to know the quantity and quality of economic mineral that exists in the ore body to understand the feasibility of the project. The purpose of the study is to petrographically describe the mineral paragenesis of the Venado vein and wall rock, as well as to determine the mineral resources and reserves that the owns Colibrí project. To achieve the objectives of this project, 6 polished sheets corresponding to the Venado vein and 4 thin sheets of the wall rock were studied. Two methods were used to estimate mineral resources and reserves: 1) the geostatistical method using geological parameters (Datamine Studio RM) was used to estimate resources, and 2) the conventional method (Longitudinal vertical section method) was used to calculate reserves. The paragenesis of the venado vein observed with the petrography of the polished laminae has determined three stages: stage 1 has pyrrhotite and pyrite in equilibrium, the pyrite is presented with massive and skeletal textures, the pyrrhotite is found in a massive way. Stage 2 shows massive sphalerite with vetiform and colloform textures that replace pyrite and pyrrhotite; galena is found in small quantities in a remanent way. In stage 3 chalcopyrite presents a botroidal texture within the sphalerite; tetrahedrite is found replacing pyrite in a disseminated way; electrum and gold are found as free grains hosted in the sphalerite and pyrite; covellite is present as a secondary mineral replacing in the edges of chalcopyrite. The rock in which the venado vein is hosted is a quartz lithic tuff belonging to the Saraguro Group. The estimation of mineral resources and reserves was determined by the combination of the vertical longitudinal section and geostatistical methods and resulted in total reserves of 16,824 tons at a grade of 30.02 gr/Tn. Total resources are 124,094 tons at a grade of 8.65 gr/Tn. Currently, the useful life of the Colibri project is 3 years and 6 months with the estimation of resources and mineral reserves carried out in this work.