Fortuna Silver Mines reported very high-grade assays from step-out drilling at its Trinidad North discovery adjacent to its San Jose silver-gold mine in Oaxaca, Mexico. Intercepts have included 2,762 g/mt silver and 14.46 g/mt gold over estimated true width of 4.2 m, 1,190 g/mt silver and 8.45 g/mt gold over estimated true width of 10.2 m, and 1,503 g/mt silver and 7.76 g/mt gold over estimated true width of 6.5 m.
The Trinidad North discovery was announced in February 2013, and a maiden resource for the zone was announced in October 2013. Step-out drilling was initiated in late September 2013. Drilling is currently being carried out from two underground drill stations at the 1,300-m level, with preparations under way to advance the underground access a further 300 m to the north to allow for further testing of the strike extension of the mineralized system.
The San Jose mine and processing plant were operating at 1,800 mt/d as of early March, with expansion to 2,000 mt/d projected for the start of the second quarter of 2014. (www.fortunasilver.com)
NovaCopper has released an updated, NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate for its Bornite deposit in the Ambler mining district of northwest Alaska. At a base case 0.5%-copper cut-off grade, the project now has estimated in-pit indicated resources of 14.1 million mt at 1.08% copper (334 million lb of contained copper) and estimated in-pit inferred resources of 109.6 million mt at 0.94% copper (2.3 billion lb of contained copper). The contained copper in indicated resources represents an 87% increase from company’s previous resource estimate.
The new Bornite deposit resource estimate incorporates results from 216 diamond drill holes, including 17 holes totaling 8,142 m drilled by NovaCopper in 2013, as well as new assays from 42 historic Kennecott drill holes totaling 14,457 m that previously had partial or no assays. The resource estimate includes both shallow mineralization amenable to open-pit mining and deeper, high-grade mineralization amenable to conventional underground mining. (www.novacopper.com)
Pilot Gold reported that new drilling to follow-up its recent discovery at the Western Flank target on its Kinsley Mountain property in southeast Elko County, Nevada, has intersected additional high-grade gold mineralization. Intercepts in step-out holes include 6.85 g/mt gold over 41.7 m in one hole, 7.1 g/mt gold over 1.5 m in another, and 18.3 g/mt gold over 22.9 m in a third. The step-out holes are located approximately 30 m east, 30 m west, and 25 m north, respectively, of the discovery hole, which returned 8.53 g/mt gold over 36.6 m.
The Western Flank high-grade zone is located in a previously unrecognized stratigraphic horizon below the limit of prior drilling and remains completely open.
The Kinsley Mountain property hosts near-surface mineralization similar to other Carlin-style, sediment-hosted gold systems. The property consists of 412 claims and 8,208 acres on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land and hosts a past-producing mine, with an extensive exploration database and numerous untested gold targets. The Western Flank target is located 550 m northwest of past-producing pits.
Pilot Gold also reported that drilling at the Right Spot target 500 m south of Western Flank returned a near-surface, oxide-gold interval of 3.57 g/mt gold over 11.5 m.
Pilot Gold holds a 79% interest in Kinsley Mountain. Intor Resources, a subsidiary of Nevada Sunrise Gold, holds the remaining 22%. (www.pilotgold.com)
Aurion Resources has signed a binding Letter of Intent with Dragon Mining to acquire a 100% interest in the Kutuvuoma and Silasselka exploration projects in northern Finland. Aurion is a Canadian junior company headquartered in St. John’s, Newfoundland; Dragon is an Australian mining company that has operations in Sweden and Finland.
The Kutuvuoma project area is located 35 km southeast of Agnico Eagle’s Kittila gold mine. Dragon acquired the property from Outokumpu Oy in 2003. Historic drilling results have included intercepts ranging from 15 g/mt gold to more than 30 g/mt gold over hole lengths of 1 to 2 m. The core has not been systematically sampled, and the mineralized zones remain open along strike and at depth. A small portion of the deposit was exploited during 1998-1999 by open-cut mining but has not been subject to exploration activities since.
The Silasselka project area is located 38 km northwest of the Kittila mine. The project area was previously explored during the 1960s by Otanmäki Oy, which outlined four vanadium-iron-titanium deposits. Historic reports indicate that a total of 55 diamond core drill holes were completed in the project area. The dimensions of the main mineralized zones identified to date range from 100 to 400 m in length, 5 to 10 m in width, and at least 100 to 200 m in depth. Parallel mineralized zones exist locally. In addition to the existence of vanadium-iron-titanium mineralization, the geological setting has the potential to host magmatic nickel-copper and shear-zone-hosted gold mineralization. (www.aurionresources.com)
