The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
First holes hit encouraging zinc grades beyond O53 deposit North of 60 Mining News – October 9, 2020
Osisko Metals is expanding zinc resources alongside and below areas mined by Cominco from 1964 until 1988.
Osisko Metals Inc. Oct. 5 reported the results from the fall drill program at its Pine Point zinc project in Northwest Territories.
In mid-June, the company published a preliminary economic assessment that outlines plans for reestablishing a mine at Pine Point, home to a mine operated by Cominco (now Teck Resources) that produced roughly 14 billion pounds of zinc and 4 billion lb of lead from around 64 million metric tons of ore averaging about 10% zinc-equivalent over a 24-year span beginning in 1964.
The PEA prepared for Osisko outlines a mine that would produce an average of 327 million lb of zinc and 143 million lb of lead annually over an initial 10-year mine life.
This scoping level study is based on 12.9 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 4.56% zinc and 1.73% lead, which equates to 6.29% zinc-equivalent; plus 37.6 million metric tons of inferred resource grading 4.89% zinc and 1.91% lead, which equates to 6.8% zinc-equivalent.
The mine outlined in the PEA envisions delivering 11,250 metric tons of ore per day from 47 open pits and eight underground mines over a 50-kilometer- (31 miles) trend to a central processing facility.
The economic assessment identified areas that could optimize the proposed mine project ahead of advancing it to feasibility, including the expansion of open-pit resources.
In late August, Osisko kicked off a 5,000-meter resource expansion drill program.
The first assays from this drilling are from four holes drilled to better define the vertical extent of prismatic crystal zinc mineralization in O53, a deposit within Central Zone at Pine Point.
Highlights from these holes include 17.5 meters averaging 11.53% zinc and 2.52% lead in drill O53-20-PP-001; and 28.8 meters averaging 23.9% zinc and 6.24% lead in O53-20-PP-012.
The latter hole extends the high-grade prismatic mineralization approximately 10 meters below the currently modelled pit boundary in the immediate area of the hole. The O53 deposit has a strike length of 313 meters, an average width of 50 meters, and maximum depth of 63 meters.
Osisko says hole O53-20-PP-003, which cut three meters averaging 8.45% zinc, indicates the presence of tabular mineralization 135 meters to the west of O53, which is well outside the boundaries of the current pit-constrained resource model.
"We are particularly excited to announce today's initial drill results, including impressive high-grade intersections from the O53 prismatic deposit as well as extension of mineralization, indicating new high-grade tabular mineralization, in drill hole O53-20-PP-003," said Osisko Metals President and COO Jeff Hussey. "We await further assays from other holes around O53. Visual estimates in the holes with pending assays confirms that mineralization remains open in the area."
Drilling at Pine Point continues to target the expansion of high-grade mineralization in areas of both prismatic and tabular deposit potential in the Central and East Mill zones. In addition, induced polarization geophysical surveying being completed this fall are targeting areas of promising exploration potential for added mineralization, based on data compiled from modelling of gravity gradiometry geophysics, lidar surveys, structural analyses, and historical drilling.
"Regionally we have numerous targets defined around ten more deposits in the resource model that are open as well as stranded historical mineralized holes and geophysical targets. There is ample potential for new discoveries and continued expansion of resources across the entire Pine Point project," said Hussey.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
Reader Comments(0)