The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Latest assays show potential for expansion, resource upgrade North of 60 Mining News – March 25, 2022
Located just south of the Great Slave Lake, Pine Point is home to a former 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 during a 24-year span beginning in 1964.
Osisko Metals Inc. March 21 announced the latest results from the late 2021 definition drill program at its Pine Point project in Northwest Territories, Canada.
After taking over Pine Point in 2018, Osisko completed a 2020 preliminary economic assessment that outlined a mine that could yield an average of 327 million pounds of zinc and 143 million lb of lead annually over an initial 10-year mine life.
Presently, Osisko is nearing completion of an updated PEA that will include updated commodity prices and reduced costs of its ongoing dewatering efforts.
According to calculation completed prior to the 2020 PEA, Pine Point hosts 12.9 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 4.56% zinc and 1.73% lead, plus 37.6 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.89% zinc and 1.91% lead.
Largely focused on the Central zone and East Mill zone, assays from the late 2021 drilling met expectations and confirmed continuity of mineralization within the current mineral resource areas.
Highlights include:
• 8.85 meters averaging 11.92% zinc and 25.49% lead in drill hole K60-21-PP-004.
• Six meters averaging 14.96% zinc and 5.02% lead in hole M6263-21-PP-005.
• Eight meters averaging 8.2% zinc and 0.37% lead in hole N39-21-PP-022.
• 3.65 meters averaging 14.04% zinc and 3.63% lead in hole N39-21-PP-038.
"We have now completed approximately 60% of the required infill drilling to convert all of the inferred mineral resources at Pine Point to the indicated mineral resource category," said Osisko Metals President and COO Jeff Hussey. "We are still impressed with the continuity of mineralization as the definition drilling confirms extent and grade distribution. Results to date also indicate significant potential to expand mineralization beyond current mineral resources through additional drilling."
In addition to the infill drilling, a total of 38 drill holes have been surveyed for hydrogeological purposes during the winter drill early 2022. As a result, profile tracer tests to measure water flow and its ensuing dataset will be added to the hydrogeological modeling as Osisko moves toward a feasibility study.
"We look forward to the completion of the program by mid-2023 and the update to the mineral resource estimate that will be concurrent to the feasibility study," added Hussey. "In the short term we will be issuing the 2022 PEA update and we look forward to positive results."
Further assay results are pending from the 2021 program, as well as the 2022 winter drilling that began in late January.
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