Northern Star Resources reported that drilling at its Jundee gold mine in Western Australia has identified extensive areas new high-grade mineralization at distances of up to 800 m from existing mining operations. Results include two eye-watering intercepts of 0.8 m at 3,933 g/mt and 0.4 m at 1,400 g/mt gold. More than 600 exploration intercepts are tabulated in the Northern Star report, dated June 30.
Much of the newly identified mineralization stems from in-mine drilling that has succeeded in expanding the known parameters of at least seven mining areas and resulted in discovery of two new trends. Drilling from a new drill drive at the base of the mine has hit mineralization 400 m below existing mine development.
“Jundee has a distinguished history as a world-class gold mine, and now we know that its future will be just as exciting,” Northern Star Managing Director Bill Beament said. “We took the decision to invest heavily in the future of Jundee, and these results show that we are being repaid many times over. We are finding high-grade gold in every direction we drill.”
The Jundee mine produced 209,515 oz of gold in Northern Star’s fiscal year to June 30, processing 1.3 million mt of ore at head grades averaging 5.5 g/mt.
NovaCopper is progressing 2016 field work at its 100% owned Upper Kobuk mineral projects in northwest Alaska. The company will invest $5.5 million this year, mainly for drilling at the Arctic high-grade copper project during the summer field season, as well as for completion of in-pit geotechnical, hydrological, metallurgical, environmental, and waste rock characterization studies.
The site camp was opened in mid-June, and the first drill started up on June 23. A planned 3,000-m drill program using three Boart Longyear diamond drill rigs was scheduled to continue until mid-August. A significant amount of environmental baseline investigation work is planned to collect data required for future permitting efforts, including aquatic, subsistence resource, and avian and large mammal surveys; an archaeological review; and further expansion and refinement of wetlands delineation studies.
Third-party engineers are conducting engineering activities that include pit-slope stability studies, waste-rock characterization, and hydrological and metallurgical studies.
Orion Gold has initiated exploration drilling programs at its Marydale gold and Prieska mine copper-zinc projects, both in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.
Drilling at Marydale, a virgin gold discovery of possible epithermal origin, will test the current geological model of the mineralization by in-filling historical drilling with oriented core drilling. The historical drilling returned several promising intercepts, including 50.4 m at 2.68 g/mt gold from 8.1 m and 37.1 m at 2.72 g/mt gold from 61.1 m.
The historical Prieska copper-zinc mine was operated from 1971 to 1991, and extensive drilling data are available from those operations. Orion’s initial drilling on the property will in-fill the historical drilling and test for extensions to known copper-zinc mineralization to achieve a 40-m by 40-m spacing. The program has the potential to define a JORC-compliant mineral resource if results confirm the continuity and tenor of the mineralized zone.
Three shallow inclined diamond drill-holes will be completed to test the viability of diamond drilling for evaluating the area impacted by historical mining and subsidence.
Orion Gold is a junior Australian company headquartered in West Perth, Western Australia.
Richmont Mines has launched a Phase 2 exploration drilling program at its Island gold mine in Ontario, Canada. The program will focus on three key priorities over the next 18 to 24 months: 1) continuing to test the lateral continuity of the known deposit to the east of the main deposit, 2) identifying the next million-plus-ounce, high-grade inferred resource in the vertical extension of the deposit between the mine’s 1,000-m and 1,500-m levels, and 3) continuing to test high-priority regional gold targets across the prospective Island gold property.
Approximately 39,000 m (C$7 million) of the approximately 142,000-m Phase 2 drilling program is scheduled for completion before the end of 2016.
Richmont’s decision to proceed with Phase 2 program was based on positive results from a recently completed, 50,100-m Phase 1 program.
