Oban Mining has initiated a 55,000-m drill program on its 100% owned Windfall Lake gold project in the Urban-Barry townships, Quebec. As part of the overall program, Oban plans to drill approximately 15,000 m before the end of 2015, using two rigs to test the open depth extension of gold mineralization below the Main Zone—the most significant gold mineralization defined to date on property.
The drilling will deepen four existing holes and target 20 holes in an area located between 700 m and 900 m below surface. Previous drilling in this zone identified mineralization of similar style and grade as the Main Zone mineralization. The targeted zone has a current inferred mineral resource of 455,000 mt averaging 8.21 g/mt gold for 120,000 oz of contained gold.
Oban has also commenced a regional till sampling program on its 82,400-ha property surrounding the Windfall Lake deposit and plans to initiate an airborne magnetic and electromagnetic geophysical survey to cover the entire property.
Pilot Gold has reported positive results from a 21-hole diamond drilling program at the 92-km2 TV Tower exploration property in western Turkey. The drilling focused on the recently identified Hilltop and Valley copper-gold porphyry systems and associated oxide gold and supergene copper targets in the south of the property.
The drilling program more than doubled the mineralized footprint of the Hilltop porphyry system to approximately 600 m by 500 m. Further drilling is planned to define the extents of this mineralization and to target the overlying supergene copper zone.
Preliminary metallurgy from the Valley porphyry indicates that the mineralization is amenable to flotation, producing a concentrate with strong recoveries and grades of up to 40% copper and 84 g/mt gold.
TV Tower is a joint venture between Pilot Gold (60%) and Teck Madencilik Sanayi Ticaret A.S. (40%), a Turkish subsidiary of Teck Resources Ltd. Pilot Gold is the project operator.
NovaCopper completed 14 diamond drill holes for a total of 3,056 m of core during its 2015 summer field season at its high-grade Arctic polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit in the Ambler mining district of northwest Alaska. The drill program was designed to evaluate the vertical and lateral continuity of the Arctic deposit’s copper, gold, silver, lead, and zinc mineralization, and to support upgrading of inferred resources to measured and indicated within the area of a proposed Arctic open pit.
The program exceeded its goals, producing “some really fantastic drill results that further demonstrate that the Arctic deposit is one of the highest-grade, open-pitable copper deposits known in the world,” NovaCopper President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse said.
All 14 holes encountered significant intervals of high-grade mineralization. The drill results, along with ongoing engineering studies, will be used to support a pre-feasibility study of the Arctic deposit.
Lucara Diamond Corp. has started a bulk sampling program on three kimberlite pipes located on trend with its Karowe diamond mine in Botswana. A bulk sample plant has been constructed and commissioned to process samples from the BK02 pipe, with initial results expected before the end of 2015.
As of mid-October, applications were in progress for material extraction for samples from the AK11 and AK12 pipes, along with the required permits to allow drilling on the respective sites.
Lucara President and CEO William Lamb said, “The receipt of the permits is a positive step forward in our resource extension campaign. We are excited about the prospects of these licenses based on the historical work which had previously been conducted on the property.”
Karowe is a hard rock, open-pit mine that will produce 350,000 to 400,000 carats in 2015. Mine life based on current probable reserves to a depth 324 m is projected at 13 years.
