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REGIONAL NEWS - EXPLORATION ROUNDUP 20 E&MJ; • FEBRUARY 2018 www.e-mj.com Polyus Drilling 180,000 m at the Sukhoi Log Deposit Polyus, Russia's largest gold producer, announced in late November that a sub- sidiary company, SL Gold, has started a 180,000-m diamond drilling campaign at the Sukhoi Log deposit in the north- ern part of the Bodaybo administrative district, Irkutsk region, Eastern Siberia, near Polyus' Verninskoye mine. The cam- paign is planned to last two years and will provide the basis for Polyus to update the block model for the deposit and the ore reserve and measured and indicated mineral resource estimates in accordance with the JORC Code. SL Gold is owned 58.4% by Poly- us. The remainder is held by a Rostec Corp. subsidiary, RT Business Develop- ment. Polyus has a right to consolidate its interest to 100% by 2022. The joint venture was granted a license for de- velopment of the Sukhoi Log deposit in February 2017. Sukhoi Log is one of the world's larg- est undeveloped gold deposits and the biggest greenfield gold project in Russia. Based on historical drilling results, AMC Consultants Pty. has generated a 3D re- source block model estimating the proj - ect's total inferred mineral resources at 58 million oz, grading 2 g/mt. This block model provided the basis for the design of the current drilling campaign and for borehole locations. The drilling campaign is divided into 50,000 m of verification drilling and 130,000 m of in-fill, geotechnical, geo- metallurgical, and hydrogeological drill- ing. Drilling started with three rigs in November, and three more rigs will come into operation in February. AMC will over- see the drilling to ensure compliance with JORC Code requirements and will provide an updated ore reserve and mineral re- source estimate. The verification drilling is sched- uled for completion in July. Its prim- ary aim is to reconfirm the results of historical drilling data, which are based on 324,000 m of diamond drilling car- ried out between 1961 to 1999, and to verify the geological interpretation of the deposit. Following completion of the verification drilling, the resource block model will be updated to deter- mine estimates for measured and indi- cated mineral resources. (www.polyus.com) Exploration Briefs Barrick Gold has elected to continue 100% funding of exploration expenditure towards a $10 milion funding require- ment to earn a 65% interest in Alicanto Minerals' Arakaka gold project in Guyana. Alicanto continues as the operator of the project. The earn-in agreement is enter- ing its third year. The Arakaka exploration budget for 2018 includes 3,500 m of diamond core drilling on the project's Xenopsaris tar- get area to follow up on 2017 explora- tion success from reconnaissance drilling and trenching that identified primary gold mineralization within an extensive alter- ation zone. Xenopsaris is the southern ex- tension of a 15-km-long zone of anomalis gold and is host to the Gomes Hill pros- pect, where historical drilling included several high-grade intercepts. Alicanto Managing Director Travis Schwertfeger said, "We are very pleased to see Barrick's increasing confidence in the Guiana Shield and the discovery po- tential in Guyana's Northwest Mining Dis- trict, as the focus on the extensive Araka- ka project area continues to narrow down to several key areas of planned work." (www.alicantominerals.com.au) McEwen Mining has committed $10 mil- lion to exploration of conceptual and early stage targets in 2018, predominantly on its recently acquired Black Fox property 65 km east of Timmins, Ontario. At the currently active Black Fox mine, deep exploration drilling below the bottom of known mineralization is a high priority. Many mines in the Timmins region extend to depths of 1,200 to 1,600 m below surface, while Black Fox currently hosts resources to a depth of only 880 m. A program of deep directional exploration drilling from surface is currently under- way. Lateral exploration to the northwest and southeast of the mine along the same geologic structure is also proposed, based on good geological and geophysical evi- dence to support the targets. The Tamarack zone is a zone rich in gold and zinc-lead-silver massive sul- phide mineralization proximal to the Black Fox mine. Other important targets include the areas around the Froome and Grey Fox deposits, 800 m to the west and 4 km to the south of the Black Fox mine, respectively. Froome currently has an underground indicated gold resource of 151,000 oz at a grade of 5.5 g/mt. Grey Fox currently has an open-pit indicated gold resource of 345,000 oz at a grade of 3.6 g/mt and an additional underground indicated gold resource of 323,000 oz at a grade of 5.9 g/mt. (www.mcewenmining.com) Peregrine Diamonds has reported that the 2017 resource expansion drill program on the CH-6 kimberlite at its 100% owned Chidliak diamond project in Nunavut, Canada, has confirmed that the high- grade kimberlite extends from surface to 540 m below surface, an additional 280 m below the 260-m depth of the current inferred resource announced on April 7, 2017. The kimberlite remains open be- low 540 m below surface. Peregrine President and CEO Tom Peregoodoff said, "The results we are releasing today confirm that the high-grade CH-6 kimberlite extends well below the current resource base of 260 m. The microdiamond data from this years' drilling clearly demonstrates that not only is the grade of this newly-defined extension of the CH-6 kimberlite very similar to that which we have previously defined, but also that we can expect the same macro diamond size distribution, which has important implications for fu - ture diamond valuations . . . "In addition, the presence of a very rare green diamond bodes well for the presence of other rare, colored diamonds that could have a significant impact on the overall average prices eventually re- ceived for diamonds recovered from the Chidliak project." (www.pdaim.com)