EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT

High gold grades headline Canadian explorers' latest result charts

Great Bear Resources has again starred as North America-based explorers wrap up fall field season activity and send a steady stream of drill results into the market.

Great Bear Resources' Dixie project continues to impress with strong exploration results from the prospective LP Fault

Great Bear Resources' Dixie project continues to impress with strong exploration results from the prospective LP Fault

Great Bear's (TSXV:GBR) resource definition drilling on the LP Fault system at Dixie in northwestern Ontario, Canada, most recently intersected 101.5m grading 4.69 grams per tonne gold, including a higher-grade interval of 5.25m at 41.25g/t.

The company said new drill holes were aimed at closing 40-150m gaps in the 4,200m-by-500m LP Fault drill grid.

CEO Chris Taylor said it was notable that all holes intersected gold, something the company's models had predicted before drilling. Great Bear has reported results for 198 drill holes at the LP Fault since its discovery 18 months ago, all of which hit gold.

It expects to release a preliminary 3D model of the LP Fault and its high-grade gold zones from surface to about 400m depth along 4.2km of strike before the end of this month.

The company remains fully funded to continue drilling through 2021.

In Quebec, O3 Mining (TSXV:OIII) has released some more results from its ongoing 150,000m drilling campaign at Marban near Val-d'Or. The drilling focuses on expanding mineralisation outside of proposed openpit areas as outlined in a September PEA.

Highlights from the seven most recent holes targeting extensions down plunge of the Gold Hawk zone included 2m grading at 383.4g/t gold.

CEO Jose Vizquerra said Gold Hawk was shaping as a "very promising" potential high-grade satellite deposit for the Marban development, 2km away.

"The high-grade intercepts confirm the exceptional high-grade characteristic of the gold deposits along the prolific Marbenite shear corridor giving us the confidence to continue the drill programme to more quickly unlock its potential and build resources there," he said.

O3's 2020-2021 programme includes 45,000m for the wider Malartic property to test extensions along strike and down plunge of the deposits, and new zones.

Meanwhile, 200km northeast of Val-d'Or, Osisko Mining (TSX:OSK) continues to roll out infill and expansion drilling results from Windfall Lake, also in Quebec. Drilling is focused on Lynx, where recent highlight intersections included 14.5m grading 86.2g/t gold and 2.2m grading 327g/t.

Osisko has outlined 1.21Moz at 9.1g/t indicated and 3.94Moz at 8.4g/t inferred resources at Windfall.

Osisko believes Lynx could expand the size of the project.

The company has budgeted a further 300,000m of drilling at Windfall in 2020 with more than 20 drills active to support a feasibility study.

It is also trying to expand known deposits, complete a bulk sample of the Triple Lynx deposit, and assess the Fox and other regional targets.

Still in Quebec, Quebec Precious Metals (TSXV:QPM) says results of five more holes of 10 completed so far at La Pointe Extension, part of the Sakami project along strike from Newmont's Éléonore gold mine, show mineralisation continues along strike and to depth.

It said the highlight was 42m grading 1.31g/t from 110m depth. Two additional holes have increased the strike length by about 400m northeast toward the main La Pointe deposit at a grade and tenor said to be consistent with prior drilling that returned 12m at 1.02g/t.

Analysts have suggest 19 holes completed to date point to a circa 350,000-400,000oz target grading an average 1.2g/t, making La Pointe a potential 1.6-1.9Moz at 2g/t resource.

Over in British Columbia, Skeena Resources' (TSX:SKE) definition and exploration drilling at 100%-owned Eskay Creek has returned 18.32m grading 36.75g/t gold-equivalent in the 21A Zone, while extension drilling at 22 Zone returned 48.74m of 6.89g/t gold and 122g/t silver, 80.69m at 1.99g/t gold and 127g/t silver, and 59.5m grading 2.51g/t gold and 62g/t silver.

Skeena is aiming to convert resources to higher-confidence categories in support of its pre-feasibility study on openpit mining, with 11 rigs still active.

In Yukon, Fireweed Zinc (TSXV:FWZ) said the discovery of zinc-lead-silver in lower sequence rocks made Boundary West at its Macmillan Pass project a bigger target, with distinctive upper and lower stratiform zinc mineralisation overprinted by wide intervals of vein-hosted mineralisation pointing to wide discovery potential.

Fireweed said this week new large claim blocks on the western extensions of Boundary Zone and the Fertile Corridor broadened its land package.

The company has an indicated resource on the Tom and Jason deposits at Macmillan Pass of 11.21Mt grading 9.61% zinc-equivalent, and 39.47Mt inferred at 10% Zn-eq.

Premier Gold Mines (TSX:PG) has also reported strong results from its Mercedes mine in Sonora, Mexico, where it says drilling is aimed at extending higher-grade mineralisation at Marianas, San Martin and Diluvio West.

At Marianas, the company reported a highlight intercept of 12.7m at 10.17g/t gold and 294.27g/t silver. The San Martin vein returned a best intercept of 4.2m at 10.03g/t gold and 118.89g/t silver, while drilling at the Diluvio West stockwork zone returned a best intersection of 10.2m at 7.12g/t gold and 26.21g/t silver.

Executive VP Stephen McGibbon said the three deposits could become important contributors to future production at Mercedes. With continued exploration success, Premier's goal is to gradually increase mill throughput back to the plant capacity of 2,000 tons per day.

As at end-2018, Mercedes had 395,000oz gold at 3.63g/t in proven and probable reserves, and 2.75Moz silver at 25.05g/t.

 

 

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