Agnico Eagle and Barsele Minerals have approved a new $3.25 million exploration program on their Barsele gold project in Västerbottens Län, Sweden, approximately 600 km north of Stockholm. The project is owned 55% by Agnico Eagle and 45% by Barsele.
The exploration program will include about 12,300 m of diamond drilling using two rigs around the existing resource area; an expansion to the regional basal glacial till sampling program; trenching and structural geology mapping in the Central Zone; hyperspectral infrared scanning of drill core from the Central Zone; geophysical parameter downhole logging in the Central and Norra Zones; metallurgical testwork; environmental studies; and local and regional hydrogeological studies.
Service provider agreements have been signed with Golder Associates Sweden regarding environmental studies and with GeoVista of Luleå, Sweden, regarding geophysical data compilation. Hyperspectral studies are being conducted by TerraCore International together with Specim.
Nevada Copper reported positive results from diamond drilling on the East underground deposit at its Pumpkin Hollow project near Yerington, Nevada. The first phase of drilling was completed from two underground stations on the 1,900-ft production haulage level. Several holes had significant intervals of more than 2.5% copper, including one intercept of 32.1 m grading 2.55% copper.
Ten development holes and one shaft geotechnical hole were drilled for a total of 2,965 m. The program focused on enhancing the mineralized zones within the current mineral reserve, especially in areas planned for mining in the early years. Additional detailed geotechnical data were also collected for refining the mine designs. A second phase of follow-up drilling will be planned for 2016 once data compilation is completed.
Nevada Copper Vice President Project Development and Exploration Greg French commented, “These are the first underground holes drilled at Pumpkin Hollow, and we gained considerable knowledge regarding geotechnical and drilling conditions that will be useful in our next phase of drilling.”
Erdene Resource Development has initiated the first drill program and geophysical surveys on its wholly owned Bayan Khundii gold project in southwest Mongolia, 15 km south of its flagship Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project. The drilling is designed to test the near-surface, down-dip extension of multiple, high-grade gold zones discovered by the company in the third quarter of 2015 during an initial surface sampling and trenching program.
The trenching identified four separate zones, 10 to 30 m wide, averaging 2.3 to 2.9 g/mt gold, including up to 1 m of 55 g/mt gold, over a 300-m strike. The current drilling is targeting high-grade extensions of this mineralization at shallow depths. Erdene has also initiated a magnetic geophysical survey over the larger 1.4-km-long Bayan Khundii target area and gradient array induced polarization and dipole-dipole IP geophysical surveys over portions of the Bayan Khundii Main Zone.
Aureus Mining has agreed to acquire three exploration licenses near its New Liberty gold mine in Liberia from Sarama Resources. Following completion of the acquisition, Aureus will have 100% ownership of the licenses, and the company’s total land portfolio will increase to 1,683 km2 from 1,402 km2.
Exploration work undertaken by Sarama has defined a 15-km-long gold corridor on the licenses, highlighted by gold-in-soil anomalies and extensive artisanal mining, all within a 15-km radius of the New Liberty mine on average. Sarama has also completed airborne geophysics, ground geochemistry, and 1,600 m of reconnaissance drilling in 15 holes, while expending a total of $1.8 million in exploration on the property.
Gold mineralization intersected by the drilling includes intercepts of 3.9 g/mt over 7.5 m from 9.3 m and 2.3 g/mt over 5 m from 28 m down the hole.
