The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – October 25, 2019
Core from previous drilling at Pine Point with the extensive zinc (sphalerite) and lead (galena) mineralization Osisko Metals is seeking during its fall drill program at this historic mine property in Northwest Territories.
Core from roughly 702,300 meters of drilling from 10,893 historical holes drilled by Cominco is stored at Pine Point.
Osisko Metals Inc. Oct. 21 announced the results of the first 26 holes from the company's fall drill program at the Pine Point zinc project in 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 were not included in this 2018 inferred resource estimate but are expected in a coming calculation that upgrades and expands the resource.
The company is now exploring new resource expansion areas at Pine Point.
"Unlike our previous infill drilling campaign, we are now focused on expanding mineralization and identifying new deposits, with a focus on vertical prismatic deposits," said Osisko Metals President and CEO Jeff Hussey.
Compilation of historical drilling carried out at East Mill, Central and North Trend zones along a 25-kilometer (16 miles) section of the property identified 100 holes with significant mineralization outside the current resource areas, indicative of near-surface mineralizing systems that were not pursued by previous operators.
Among the priority targets in these exploration areas are gravity anomalies indicative of near-surface higher-grade deposits with prismatic sphalerite (zinc) and galena (lead) crystals.
The first 26 holes of this exploration drilling targeted the L-37 and N-38 areas within the East Mill Zone.
Highlights include 6.4 meters of 8.68 percent zinc and 2.45 percent lead from a depth of 7.5 meters in L37-19-PP-001; 14 meters of 6.43 percent zinc and 0.87 percent lead from 21.2 meters in L37-19-PP-011; and seven meters of 7 percent zinc and 5.09 percent lead from 21.6 meters in L37-19-PP-013.
Osisko says all the intercepts from these holes are within flat-lying tabular-style deposits and are located between 7 to 36 meters vertical depth, adding more near-surface, high-grade mineralization in proximity to the mineral resource for East Mill.
The focus in this area of the East Mill Zone is to connect the mineralization between two existing tabular deposits.
"These early results from the start of our current exploration program are very encouraging," said Hussey. "The program will be further adapted once processing and interpretation has been completed on the eagerly anticipated airborne gravity gradiometry data."
The gradiometery data is expected to help with targeting vertical prismatic deposits at Pine Point.
In addition to the fall exploration drilling, Osisko has begun the task of relogging and assaying core from roughly 702,300 meters of historical drilling that is stored at Pine Point. At that time, Cominco did not assay what is, in today's economic context, considered to be significant mineralization.
The relogging initiative provides Osisko a cost-effective means of enhancing the ongoing exploration program by assaying mineralization noted in a number of historical holes. This data will aid in identifying new exploration targets and verifying the historical dataset.
–SHANE LASLEY
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