Osisko tests orphaned Pine Point targets

Osisko Metals Inc. Aug. 27 announced the start of a 5,000-meter fall drill program targeting expansion areas at its Pine Point zinc-lead project in the Northwest Territories.

Cominco Ltd. (now Teck Resources) mined zinc-lead ore from a series of 50 surface and underground deposits along a 60-kilometer (37 miles) corridor at Pine Point from 1964 to 1988.

Over the past couple of years, Osisko drilled 1,031 holes in and around historical resource areas along two parallel trends at Pine Point – Main and North.

Based on historical drilling and 317 of the holes completed by Osisko, an initial 38.4 million metric ton inferred resource averaging 4.58 percent zinc and 1.85 percent lead was calculated last November.

The remaining 714 holes completed by the company were not included in this 2018 inferred resource estimate but are expected in a coming calculation that upgrades and expands the resource.

Now, the company is exploring new resource expansion areas at Pine Point.

"The exploration upside is quite substantial across the entire property," said Osisko Metals President and CEO Jeff Hussey.

"Following extensive compilation work and advanced geological modelling, our exploration team has a better understanding of the structural controls associated to the distribution of lead-zinc mineralization in the 60-kilometer-long system," he added. "We have identified several high priority targets that were not explored by previous operators."

The team's compilation work covering the East Mill, Central and North Trend zones along a 25-kilometer (16 miles) section of the property identified 100 drill holes with significant mineralization outside the current resource areas, indicative of near-surface mineralizing systems that were not pursued by previous operators.

Highlights from these orphaned holes along the Main trend include: 13.72 meters averaging 16.75 percent zinc and 8 percent lead in hole YR77-23-01; 6.1 meters of 5.28 percent zinc and 0.48 percent lead in YR86-04-14; 3.05 meters of 14.8 percent zinc in 6351; and 4.26 meters of 12.2 percent zinc and 2.76 percent lead in 1362.

Highlights from orphaned holes along the North trend include: 7.7 meters of 4.79 percent zinc and 0.29 percent lead in hole 1880; 5.27 meters of 16.24 percent zinc and 5.03 percent lead in 1883; and 4.57 meters of 5.64 percent zinc and 7.82 percent lead in 3922.

Osisko said its compilation work and analysis has also identified the potential for zinc-lead mineralization in the deeper Pine Point Formation, a more than 50-meter-thick underlying zone that has seen less historical exploration. Cominco mined 17.5 million metric tons of ore averaging 6.2 percent zinc and 2 percent lead from the X-15 deposit in this formation; and 149,700 metric tons of ore averaging 12.9 percent zinc and 7 percent lead. Both zones are in the deeper Pine Point formation.

Osisko also plans to drill priority gravity anomalies along favorable structural trends that could lead to the discovery of additional near-surface higher-grade deposits with prismatic sphalerite (zinc) and galena (lead) crystals. A high-resolution Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) topographic survey flown in 2018 was able to highlight structural controls and subtle circular collapse breccia structures that are indicative of the high-grade prismatic deposits the company is seeking.

–SHANE LASLEY