Sun Metals has commenced diamond drilling at its flagship Stardust project in northcentral British Columbia.
Image: A gold mineral. Photo: courtesy of carlos aguilar/Freeimages.com.
A second drill is scheduled to be mobilized mid-August as the Company continues to successfully execute the aggressive 2018 exploration campaign, including 15,000 metres of drilling. The focus of drilling will be on the high-grade copper-gold skarn portion of a Carbonate Replacement System that has been identified over a 2.2 kilometre long corridor of historic exploration dating back to 1944.
The 2018 exploration campaign at Stardust was initiated in early June with mapping and prospecting, completion of several soil geochemical grids (over 3,000 samples to date), airborne Lidar and photogrammetry survey, and a 100-metre line spaced Heli-borne VTEM and Magnetics survey. The $5.0 million campaign is understood to be one of the largest, non-development stage exploration programs to be undertaken in British Columbia in 2018.
Heli-borne VTEM and Magnetics Survey
The 1100-line km Heli-borne VTEM and Magnetics survey commenced on July 11th and was completed on July 17th. The survey was designed to provide detailed magnetics over the entire property and to provide the first property-wide direct targeting EM data. Preliminary results indicate there are several highly prospective targets that require follow-up. Forward modelling of conductive plates is currently underway. A new magnetic inversion model is in progress based on the new dataset, which will help refine some of the complexity within the Glover Stock and aid in further defining drill targets.
Diamond Drilling
The exploration program at Stardust, including 15,000 metres of planned diamond drilling, is designed to investigate many zones and styles of mineralization but will focus on areas prospective for high-grade copper-gold skarn. The first diamond drill arrived on site August 1st, with the second drill expected to arrive later this month.
One of the early targets to be tested is the down-plunge extension of the main Canyon Creek Skarn zone. The identified mineralization there is open along the dominant structural trend and historic drilling in 2002 returned high-grade copper-gold skarn mineralization, including 9.7 metres grading 2.89% copper, 36.70 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 182.6 g/t silver from hole LD2002-09.
Drilling will also target extension of the Hanging Wall zone, where 2009 drilling intersected 7.0 metres grading 2.68% copper, 2.90 g/t gold, and 45.4 g/t silver in hole LD2009-12. This zone remains open in all directions.
Steve Robertson, president and CEO stated “this drilling campaign will focus on expansion and further discovery of high-grade copper-gold skarn mineralization related to the Glover Stock which we believe to be the source of mineralizing fluids for the entire Carbonate Replacement System. The recently completed Heli-borne VTEM and Magnetics survey has identified a number of high resolution targets for us to test.”
Source: Company Press Release