When last we wrote about Canadian listed Consolidated Global Minerals in 2005 it was continuing to develop its Front Range gold project in Colorado, was building a uranium portfolio in Utah and had spun off its Tunisian assets into Maghreb Minerals which listed on AIM in 2005. Cash, however, was a problem and that is the reason chief executive George Heard has been sparing in his news on progress of late. When Minews spoke to him at Christmas he forecast that things would get better in 2006 and there is now clear evidence that he was right. For a start the company has just raised C$3.95 million by a series of placements, raising the price of the shares placed as well as the amount raised in confirmation that there was an appetite from investors. He has also taken on a firm of IR specialists so must anticipate an interesting newsflow.

The Front Range gold project consists of 106 patented and unpatented mineral claims located in Boulder County, Colorado. The claims encompass an area of approximately 480 acres that include 18 past producing mines along with a number of other known mineral veins or extensions of past producing veins. Operating permits and licenses are in place as is a fully functional 100 tonnes/day flotation mill and associated facilities. Back in 2004 the capacity of this mill was doubled with the installation of a larger ball mill unit. George Heard found out that Asarco had shut down a mine nearby and was able to buy necessities such as scoop trams at fire sale prices. A figure of C$80,000 was suggested for the ball mill so the company was able to pay for its purchases at the time.

The resource at Front Range is modest, but high grade. It appears to be based on work done by McLellan in 1964 who used approximately 1580 samples collected from the underground workings of the Cash and Rex mines to calculate a measured resource of 15,948 tons at 1.71 oz/t gold and 14.8 oz/t silver. Using the vein average grade and assuming a reasonable continuity of the vein, Sousa estimated a further indicated resource for the Cash mine in 1981 of 8,000 tons at 1.31 oz/t gold and 10.1 oz/t silver. Based on this work the current estimate is 77,000 tonnes grading 1.5 ozs/tonne gold and 12 ozs/tonne silver, but there is clearly scope to increase this significantly now that the company has some money in the kitty to fund a drilling programme.

It may wait, however, until cash flow has commenced from production as the company is readying several past-producing gold veins for production. Some idea of the potential can be gained from a look back to a channel sampling programme carried out last year on the Freiberg vein which produced some very tasty results. The average width for the vein for the first 105 feet was 2.3 feet and assayed 1.922 ozs/tonne gold and 10.505 ozs/tonne silver. Samples taken where stope development is planned to begin ran 6.50 ozs/tonne gold, 6.93 ozs/tonne gold and 71.82 ozs/tonne silver, 22.84 ozs/tonne silver. You do not need to move a lot of rock to start making money at these grades and a three-compartment stope is planned to provide bulk material to the mill for processing and metallurgical assessment.

The latest news is that mill test runs have been completed with several day-long runs. The Knelson concentrator and finishing table have been tied into the circuit. Fire assays were completed by company personnel in the company's on-site laboratory on concentrate from the Knelson circuit. The grade of the test gravity concentrate exceeded 600 ozs/tonne gold. Silver assays were not available when this announcement was made which was a little while ago as the company has been concentrating on raising money this year. Continuing development will continue to focus on feeding the mill on a consistent basis with ore from various shoots on the Freiberg and Cash veins so that the mill can be adjusted to optimize recovery.

In the meantime work continues on several other fronts including gold exploration at Red Lake in Ontario, uranium property acquisitions in Utah and gold exploration joint ventures in Nevada with Dynamic Ventures and Grand Cru. Front Range is the focus, however, and the sooner the cash flow commences the happier will be those who contributed to the recent placements.