Presently, two diamond are working at the mine site to meet the company’s three immediate objectives that include: infill drilling to upgrade resources to reserve status for detailed mine planning; condemnation drilling to assist with infrastructure development related to mine operations and mine site planning; and deep exploration drilling designed to evaluate deep seated geophysical anomalies and assist with long range mine and exploration planning.
Prior to the diamond drilling program in the Oriole zone, 83 shallow percussion holes were drilled on an approximate 25m spaced grid in order to better understand the geology and controls of high grade mineralization.
Samples were taken every 4m via a cyclone attached to the drill.
Samples were split four times on site with a rifle splitter in order to reduce the sample to less than 5kgs, and shipped to Pioneer Laboratory for analysis.
Assay results have been received for 83 percussion holes drilled in the Oriole zone and for three condemnation/exploration holes drilled just to the east of the eastern end of Pit 2, where a new access road is being planned.
The Oriole area, which is generally higher grade material, is located just to the south of Pit 3 and is being considered for early stage mining as it is situated within an area planned for future waste rock storage.
The percussion holes provided significant information on the contacts between mineralization and barren dykes and bounding non-mineralized rock.
Of the 83 percussion holes, 13 were located within barren intrusive rocks, 14 were drilled into barren volcanic rock, and an additional 10 holes were drilled within dyke rock.
Of the remaining holes, 38 intersected grades above the 0.15% copper cut-off grade and define a northeasterly trending, elliptical shaped area of mineralization approximately 210m long by 120m wide.
