Agnico Eagle Mines reported that drilling during the first half of 2016 at its Amaruq gold project in Nunavut, northern Canada, increased inferred mineral resources to 3.7 million oz of gold at a grade of 5.97 g/mt, including a 33% increase in open-pit resources to 2.4 million oz at a grade of 5.53 g/mt. The drilling and exploration program was scheduled for completion by mid-October, using seven diamond drill rigs.
Agnico Eagle anticipates that an updated mineral resource estimate incorporating the balance of the 2016 drill results will be released with its year-end results in February 2017.
Construction of a 62-km Amaruq exploration access road continues. As of mid-September 13.3 km had been completed, with an additional 2.7 km scheduled for completion by year-end.
Permitting is ongoing to allow for development of an exploration ramp. The company anticipates that the permit will be received in late 2016 or early 2017.
Agnico Eagle has a 100% interest in the Amaruq project. The large property consists of 116,717 ha, located approximately 50 km northwest of the company’s Meadowbank mine.
Wallbridge Mining reported that the exploration committees for its Lonmin-funded joint ventures in the Sudbury district of Ontario have approved programs totaling C$3.958 million for 20,000 m of drilling and other work scheduled to begin in October 2016. The work will focus primarily on exploration for high-grade polymetallic nickel, copper, and platinum group metals within the Parkin Offset Dyke, which includes the past-producing Milnet mine, the high-grade Milnet 1500 zone, an historical resource at surface, and a number of high-grade surface occurrences.
Lonmin may earn up to a 50% interest in the Parkin properties by funding aggregate payments and exploration expenditures of C$11.083 million over four years and then may earn up to an additional 15% in each Parkin property by funding through to feasibility studies.
“The 2016-2017 exploration program is exciting in that it not only follows up on this year’s success at expanding the near-surface mineralization at Parkin but also will test other exploration targets at depth.” Wallbridge President and CEO Marz Kord said. “This exploration program will advance Wallbridge’s exploration-stage assets in Sudbury and complements Wallbridge’s current efforts in acquiring an advanced-stage gold asset, the Fenelon mine property, from Balmoral Resources, which the company is planning to rapidly advance to a production decision by mid-2017.”
Aurion Resources reports that B2Gold has begun the initial drill program at the Kutuvuoma deposit in northern Finland. B2Gold is working under an earn-in agreement that allows it to earn up to an undivided 75% interest in a project area of approximately 25,000 ha by completing $15 million in exploration expenditures, a positive feasibility study, and issuing 550,000 B2Gold shares to Aurion.
The exploration expenditure required under the second year of the agreement is $1 million. B2Gold has assumed operatorship of the project. The 2016 drill program will primarily test the along-strike continuity of the Kutuvuoma deposit.
Millrock Resources has initiated a drilling program at the Los Chinos gold project 100 km north of the city of Hermosillo in Sonora state, Mexico. Centerra Gold can earn a 70% interest in the project by funding $5.0 million in exploration expenditures over a five-year period. Millrock is managing the exploration.
The Los Chinos drilling program is planned to consist of at least 10 holes totaling approximately 2,000 m. The first target will be the El Camino zone, where anomalous gold, lead, and arsenic are detected over an area measuring 700 m long by up to 500 m wide.
A recently completed induced polarization survey suggests that resistivity lows bounding resistive blocks correlate with anomalous soil results. Mineralized quartz veins exposed at surface appear to have formed along shear zones developed along syn-metamorphic, low-angle reverse faults. Specular hematite is commonly present near veins, and pale green sericite-chlorite characterizes the altered wall rocks of the shear zones.
