Lundin Mining reported that exploration drilling approximately 2 km east of its Eagle nickel-copper mine on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has intersected a new zone, Eagle East, of high-grade massive and semimassive nickel-copper sulphide mineralization. The Eagle East intercepts have included 24 m grading 5.34% nickel and 4.41% copper at down-hole depths from 1,142 m to 1,166 m.
Lundin’s exploration program at Eagle is focused on identifying new high-grade zones that could potentially extend the life of the Eagle mine. Eagle East was previously thought to host primarily low-grade disseminated nickel-copper sulphides at shallower depths. These semimassive sulphides are transitioning into high-grade nickel-copper massive sulphides enriched in platinum-palladium-gold-silver as the host feeder dyke deepens to the east. The high-grade massive sulphide zone is open in all directions, and the dimensions are currently unknown. True widths of the intersections have not yet been determined.
In all, Lundin has completed 20 holes, totaling 7,817 m in attempts to trace the Eagle East feeder dyke. Thirteen of the holes have intercepted semimassive and massive sulphide nickel-copper mineralization. To date, no mineral resource has been defined. Lundin is advancing a more extensive drilling campaign for the remainder of 2015.
Gold Road Resources has announced an updated, JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for its Gruyere deposit on the Dorothy Hills trend at Yamarna, Western Australia. The resource now totals 137.81 million mt grading 1.24 g/mt gold for a total of 5.51 million oz of gold. The estimate is based on 25,000 m of diamond drilling and 41,000 m of reverse circulation drilling that have been completed in the since the discovery of Gruyere in October 2013.
The updated Gruyere resource includes 87.54 million mt grading 1.21 g/mt gold for 3.4 million oz in the measured and indicated resource categories, plus inferred material. The resources are reported at a 0.7-g/mt gold cutoff constrained within an A$1,600/oz optimized pit shell.
Gold Road Executive Chairman Ian Murray said, “Gruyere now has a scale of real significance. We have spent approximately A$10.9 million on Gruyere since the discovery in October 2013, which equates to A$1.98/oz of mineral resource, well below the international average cost per discovery ounce. This updated mineral resource will feed into our ongoing prefeasibility study, which will be completed by the end of the calendar year and reported to the market in early 2016.”
Mungana Gold Mines has initiated a 60-hole, 20,000-m summer exploration drilling program at its Patterson Lake South property in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The program is building on a highly successful winter program that discovered near-surface high grades at the R600W zone, greatly expanded the Triple R deposit’s footprint and high-grade area, and identified multiple prospective regional targets. Up to four drill rigs will be utilized for the summer drilling program.
Radon surveys, which were instrumental in the early success of the Triple R and R600W exploration, will be used in conjunction with gravity surveys to prioritize regional targets. For this activity, a total of 19 grids will include a 16.625 line-km ground gravity geophysics survey and a supportive land-based radon survey.
The mineralization at Patterson Lake South remains open along strike to the east and west.
Newcrest Mining has signed an agreement with Mungana Gold Mines to explore for gold and copper on Mungana’s Chillagoe project in north Queensland, Australia. The agreement provides for Newcrest to spend up to A$20 million on exploration over a period of eight years by way of an initial A$3 million commitment to be spent within the first 18 months, followed by an option to sign a farm-in agreement and spend up to an additional $17 million over a further 78 months to earn a 70% interest in the exploration area.
The Chillagoe tenements are highly prospective for large porphyry gold-copper discoveries, as evidenced by the Red Dome deposit, which produced more than 1 million oz of gold, 4.3 million oz of silver, and 35,000 mt of copper in concentrates from an open-pit mining operation between 1985 and 1997.
