The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Additional wide copper-gold intercepts drilled at East Ridge North of 60 Mining News – December 10, 2021
The 2021 drilling at Red Chris cut impressive gold-copper grades at East Ridge, a large resource expansion zone at the Northern British Columbia mine.
Newcrest Mining Ltd. and Imperial Metals Corp. Dec. 8 reported that drilling continues to cut zones of higher-grade gold and copper within wide sections of porphyry bulk tonnage mineralization at East Ridge, a resource expansion target at the Red Chris Mine in Northern British Columbia.
According to a March resource calculation, Red Chris hosts 980 million metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 0.41 grams per metric ton (13 million oz) gold and 0.38% (3.7 million metric tons) copper.
This resource forms the basis for a prefeasibility study published in October that details a block cave mine at Red Chris forecast to produce 4.9 million oz of gold and 1.5 million metric tons of copper from 406 million metric tons of ore over a roughly 31-year mine life. Additional gold and copper would be produced from the existing open pit.
Newcrest, which owns a 70% joint venture interest in Red Chris, says this PFS only captures a portion of the opportunities discovered at Red Chris. This includes pods of higher-grade mineralization within East Zone that could bolster copper-gold output prior to block cave mining and the East Ridge expansion area.
Imperial Metals Corp., which owns the remaining 30% interest in Red Chris, first encountered the pods of higher-grade mineralization with a 2009 hole that cut 432.5 meters averaging 2% copper and 3.8 g/t gold in East Zone.
Newcrest's 2020 drilling cut additional wide sections with impressive grades at East Zone. One such hole, RC634, cut 166 meters averaging 1.5% copper and 3 g/t gold, inside a wider 532-meter intercept averaging 0.82% copper and 1.3 g/t gold.
A 3,500-meter underground exploration decline is being driven to provide a platform for more detailed resource drilling and potentially mine some of the higher-grade pod material in the East Zone prior to block cave mining.
It may also serve as a platform to better define and eventually mine East Ridge.
"The East Ridge zone is well located, as the exploration ramp being driven to access the top of the deep East Zone is about 200 meters to the north of the East Ridge zone and could provide access for both underground drilling and potentially underground development," said Imperial Metals President Brian Kynoch.
For now, however, the Red Chris Joint Venture partners are having success drilling this intriguing but deeper resource expansion target from surface.
"Drilling results at our East Ridge discovery were particularly encouraging with further expansion of the mineralization footprint to the east," said Newcrest Mining CEO Sandeep Biswas.
One hole drilled at East Ridge earlier this year, RC700, cut 366 meters averaging 1.1 g/t gold and 0.93% copper from a depth of 738 meters, including 146 meters averaging 2.1 g/t gold and 1.6% copper from 780 meters.
Hole RC700 was drilled 100 meters above RC688, a previously reported hole that cut 344 meters averaging 0.7 g/t gold and 0.75% copper, including 170 meters averaging 1.1 g/t gold and 1.1% copper.
The Red Chris JV partners report that drilling continues to expand the East Ridge footprint.
Highlights from recent drilling at East Ridge include:
• 240 meters averaging 0.49 g/t gold and 0.53% copper from a depth of 888 meters in hole RC735, including 24 meters averaging 1.4 g/t gold and 0.68% copper from 1,068 meters.
• 390 meters averaging 0.63 g/t gold and 0.48% copper from a depth of 1,088 meters in hole RC739, including 38 meters averaging 1.8 g/t gold and 0.71% copper from 1,244 meters, and 44 meters averaging 2 g/t gold and 1.3% copper from 1,402 meters.
• 366 meters averaging 0.45 g/t gold and 0.57% copper from a depth of 728 meters in hole RC745, including 36 meters averaging 1.4 g/t gold and 1.2% copper from 960 meters.
• 306 meters averaging 0.28 g/t gold and 0.39% copper from a depth of 706 meters in hole RC747, including 20 meters averaging 1.1 g/t gold and 1.2% copper from 896 meters.
"The high-grade mineralization remains open to the east and at depth which provides exciting potential for the resource base at Red Chris to grow over time," said Biswas.
Considering that 210,906 meters of drilling have been completed at Red Chris over the two years since Newcrest bought a 70% interest in the mine, that timeframe is not expected to be long.
With eight drill rigs turning, Newcrest expects that roughly 50,000 meters of growth-related to be completed at Red Chris this year.
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)