Integra Gold Corp. initiated a 50,000-m drill program at its Lamaque gold project in Val-d’Or, Québec, Canada, in late January. The company had four diamond drill rigs active on the property and expected to have up to seven rigs operating within weeks. As many as seven rigs will be active during the winter months, with an estimated two rigs remaining in use during the summer and fall.
The Lamaque gold project’s Triangle Zone will be the main drill target in 2015, with drilling focused on testing the lateral extensions of mineralization to the east, west and south. To the east, drilling will focus on targets that remain open in the vicinity of the 2014 drill program, which intersected multiple high-grade mineralized zones, including 14.23 g/mt gold over 11 m.
Integra President and CEO Stephen de Jong said, “We are excited to announce the commencement of the largest exploration campaign we have undertaken at Lamaque. Drilling will focus on expanding resources in known zones as well as targeting multiple geophysical and geological anomalies on the property, a number of which have never been tested.”
B2Gold has announced an updated inferred gold mineral resource estimate for the Wolfshag zone directly adjacent to the company’s new open-pit Otjikoto mine in Namibia. The updated inferred resource contains 675,000 oz of gold in 2.6 million mt grading 8.14 g/mt gold utilizing a 3-g/mt cutoff. The previously released initial inferred resource estimate for the Wolfshag zone was 6.8 million mt at 3.2 g/mt gold containing 703,000 oz of gold.
As the majority of the Wolfshag zone is now envisioned to be mined underground, additional drilling will be required to infill the resource to the indicated category. Engineering studies are under way to determine which portion of Wolfshag could be mined by open pit and which portion by underground mining.
B2Gold currently plans to begin open-pit mining at Wolfshag in 2016. The conceptual plan is to blend higher-grade material from Wolfshag with ore from the Otjikoto pit, resulting in an increase in annual gold production at Otjikoto and improved project economics. The main Otjikoto open-pit deposit totals 29.4 million mt at a grade of 1.42 g/mt gold containing 1.34 million oz of gold.
Crocodile Gold Corp. has reported positive results from a multitargeted 2014 underground drilling exploration program at its Stawell gold mine in Victoria state, Australia. The drilling focused on the upper levels of the mine between 180 m and 705 m below surface. Results include 14 high-grade intercepts from 33 drill holes, totaling 4,261 m completed at a cost of $525,600.
Drilling concentrated on three main target areas located in the middle to upper portion of the Magdala system, a strongly mineralized system where underground mining is currently in progress. Current and extensive historical mining of Magdala will allow target areas to be readily accessed in the future. The 2014 drill results are positive as they identify areas for potential resource growth and also provide upside for potential extension of the life of Stawell’s underground operations.
Crocodile Gold President and CEO Rodney Lamond said, “After more than 30 years of continuous operation and more than 2.2 million oz of gold production at Stawell, we believe that there is still strong potential for finding additional underground mineral resources.”
Mega Precious Metals is conducting a 5,000-m winter drill program at its Monument Bay gold and tungsten project 570 km northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The company has two drill rigs on the property focusing on resource expansion and new target development, building on the success of 2014 drill results that demonstrated a robust, high-grade gold/tungsten system.
The winter drill program is targeting prospective mineralized zones along three main trends, with the goal of discovering new zones of gold and tungsten mineralization. The top 10 exploration targets are in close proximity to the project’s Twin Lakes gold/tungsten deposit. Each target is based on the occurrence of new and/or historic high-grade gold/tungsten intercepts with visible gold and scheelite, mineralized shearing, and carbonate-sericite-silica alteration, together with coincidental soil and/or rock anomalies within the stratigraphy.
Mega expects to complete the first phase of the winter program during the second quarter of 2015.
