The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - June 27, 2024
Looking south over the mill at Kensington Mine in Southeast Alaska.
Coeur Mining Inc. June 27 reported that its multi-year exploration program at Kensington continues to deliver wide drill intercepts with high-grade gold at this mining operation in Southeast Alaska.
In mid-2022, Coeur launched a roughly $80 million exploration program at Kensington focused on extending the life of this high-grade underground mine beyond 2030.
Over the first six months, this program added enough reserves to extend mining at Kensington by 1.5 years and during 2023 the program continued to add more ounces of gold to reserves than were mined.
As a result, Kensington entered 2024 with 2.12 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 0.194 ounces per ton (411,000 oz) gold.
In addition, the Southeast Alaska mine started this year with 2.93 million tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.279 oz/t (819,000 oz) gold, plus 1.57 million tons of inferred resource averaging 0.248 oz/t (388,000 oz) gold.
The company reports that 2023 and 2024 drilling not included in the resource estimate continues to extend high-grade gold mineralization in four zones at Kensington – Upper Kensington, Lower Kensington, Elmira Main, and Elmira South.
"Results from Kensington's multi-year exploration program continue to be very encouraging with high grades and wide intercepts encountered in Elmira South and in Upper and Lower Kensington," said Coeur Vice President of Exploration Aoife McGrath. "Drilling also continues to outline new potential zones."
Coeur says previously outlined zones in the upper area of the Kensington deposit appear to be converging into single, wider mineable areas. In addition, several potentially new sub-parallel zones are being delineated.
Highlights from the latest batch of results from drilling at Upper Kensington include (all drill results reported in true widths):
• 2.2 feet averaging 7.91 oz/t gold (0.7 meters at 271.2 grams per metric ton gold) and 13.9 feet at 0.75 oz/t gold (4.2 meters at 25.6 g/t gold) in hole K23-1935-126-X12.
• 17.5 feet averaging 0.39 oz/t gold (5.4 meters at 13.3 g/t gold) in holeK23-1935-126-X15.
• 0.9 feet averaging 15.25 oz/t gold (0.3 meters at 522.9 g/t gold) in hole K23-1935-126-X16.
• 14.6 feet averaging 0.48 oz/t gold (4.5 meters at 16.4 g/t gold) in hole K23-1935-126-X18.
• 17.7 feet averaging 0.95 oz/t gold (5.4 meters at 32.6 g/t gold) in hole K23-1935-126-X21.
• 16.1 feet averaging 0.34 oz/t gold (4.9 meters at 11.8 g/t gold) in hole K24-1345-074-X03.
Resource expansion drilling has also extended Zones 30B and 30C by 125 feet downdip since year-end 2023 reserve and resource calculations.
The newly discovered Zone 50 in lower Kensington is growing rapidly. Infill drilling over a central portion of this zone, which measures approximately 750 feet by 500 feet, has been completed, with expansion drilling also completed over a similar area down-dip.
Highlights from the latest batch of results from drilling at Lower Kensington include:
• 28.2 feet averaging 0.18 oz/t gold (8.6 meters at 6.2 g/t gold) in hole K23-0220-091-X01.
• 7.1 feet averaging 1.1 oz/t gold (2.2 meters at 37.7 g/t gold) and 14.5 feet averaging 0.38 oz/t gold (4.4 meters at 13 g/t gold) in hole K23-0220-091-X27.
• 3.3 feet averaging 1.73 oz/t gold (one meter at 59.3 g/t gold) in hole K23-0220-109-X02.
• 29.6 feet averaging 0.41oz/t gold (nine meters at 14 g/t gold) in hole K23-0220-147-X03.
• Four feet averaging 1.21 oz/t gold (1.2 meters at 41.4 g/t gold) in hole K24-0220-091-X02.
Highly encouraged by the results so far, Coeur has decided to develop a new exploration drift in order to complete infill of the Zone 50 expansion area at a better drill angle. This work is expected to be completed before 2024 reserve and resource calculations at the end of the year.
Drilling at Elmira has revealed continuity between the Elmira Main and Elmira South zones. Structural studies and assay results indicate the Elmira Main structure splits into two at Elmira South (hanging wall and footwall structures), leading to wider zones of mineable mineralization.
"After completion of a regional- and mine-scale structural modeling exercise during 2023 that put the Kensington Mine and its mineralization styles into context, detailed local scale structural modeling is almost complete for the Elmira deposit," said McGrath.
Highlights from the latest batch of results from drilling at Elmira include:
• 9.8 feet averaging 0.59 oz/t gold (three meters at 20.3 g/t gold) and 7.4 feet averaging 0.33 oz/t gold (2.2 meters at 11.2 g/t gold) in holeEL24-1180-095-X01.
• 9.8 feet averaging 0.73 oz/t gold (three meters at 24.9 g/t gold) and 10.2 feet averaging 0.35 oz/t gold (3.1 meters at 12 g/t gold) in hole EL24-1180-095-X03.
• 36.3 feet averaging 0.23 oz/t gold (11.1 meters at 7.8 g/t gold), 10.4 feet averaging 1 oz/t gold (3.2 meters at 34.4 g/t gold), and 12.7 feet at 0.62 oz/t gold (3.9 meters at 21.4 g/t gold) in hole EL24-1180-095-X07.
• 9.4 feet averaging 0.58 oz/t gold (2.9 meters at 19.7 g/t gold) in hole EL23-1060-139-X13.
"These results validate the rationale for initiating the multi-year development program in mid-2022, which was to bolster the mine's operational flexibility and set the stage for significant mine life additions," said Coeur Mining President and CEO Mitchell Krebs. "Following the conclusion of this program in the first half of next year, we expect Kensington to be well-positioned for a return to a sustained period of free cash flow generation and to be an important contributor to Coeur's U.S.-centric portfolio of long-lived mines in North America."
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.
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