Engineering & Mining Journal

APR 2016

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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REGIONAL NEWS - EXPLORATION ROUNDUP 18 E&MJ; • APRIL 2016 www.e-mj.com Seabridge Grows its Deep Kerr Gold-Copper Resource Seabridge Gold has reported an updated mineral resource estimate for the Deep Kerr gold-copper deposit at its 100% owned KSM project in northwest British Columbia, Canada, that increases the de- posit's inferred resource to 1.01 billion metric tons (mt) grading 0.35 g/mt gold and 0.53% copper. Contained metals to- tal 11.3 million oz of gold and 11.8 bil- lion lb of copper. Seabridge discovered Deep Kerr in 2013, and the deposit is adding re- sources to the already huge KSM project, which currently has proven and probable reserves of 38.2 million oz of gold and 9.9 billion lb of copper. Regarding Deep Kerr, Seabridge Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk said, "The size of the deposit continues to grow with no diminishment of grade. Furthermore, we have not yet found the limits of the immense mineral- izing system that created Deep Kerr. The drillhole database used to es- timate the Deep Kerr mineral resource consisted primarily of data collected by Seabridge from 72 core drill holes total- ing more than 67,000 m. Seabridge has retained Golder Associ - ates to undertake bulk underground min - ing studies for Deep Kerr. Seabridge also is updating the 2012 preliminary feasibility study (PFS) pre- pared for the overall KSM project, with completion scheduled for later this year. The updated PFS will restate mineral re- sources for all of the zones at KSM, us- ing both open-pit and block-cave mining methods to constrain the resources. It will also include changes to key input param- eters since 2012, including metal prices, currency exchange rates, labor rates, and energy costs. (seabridgegold.net) Exploration Briefs Barrick Gold has signed an agreement with Alicanto Minerals granting Barrick the option to earn a 65% interest in Al- icanto's Arakaka gold project in north- west Guyana. Funding requirements for Barrick total $10 million, including $8 million in exploration expenditures over a period of four years and a $2 million cash payment to Alicanto at the completion of the earn-in expenditure. Alicanto will remain the operator of the project during the frst two years of the agreement, overseeing an anticipat- ed exploration expenditure of $4 million. Barrick will have fnal approval for explo- ration programs and annual budgets for each year of the earn-in period. The Arakaka project covers 300 km 2 in a relatively under-explored greenstone belt. The project area has been the source of more than 1 million oz of alluvial and near-surface gold production across a mining history of more than 100 years. Readily accessible infrastructure in- cludes an all-season road network, daily fights to within 10 km of the property, and deep-water port facilities within 15 km of the property boundary. Alicanto Minerals is an Australian ju- nior company. (www.alicantominerals.com.au) Oban Mining has reported numerous encouraging intercepts from an ongoing drilling program at its 100% owned Wind- fall Lake gold project 200 km northeast of Val-d'Or, Quebec. The 55,000-m pro- gram combines defnition drilling above the project's Red Dog intrusion with ex- pansion drilling both above and below the intrusion. Drilling above Red Dog is focused on expanding known zones of mineralization and upgrading the level of confdence in the established mineral resource. Drilling below Red Dog is focused on testing three major corridors of mineralization and al- teration similar to known lenses defned above Red Dog. Oban reported numerous drill inter- cepts and grades from Windfall Lake in a series of six press releases through the frst quarter of 2016. A February 29 re- lease included a report of a spectacular intercept of 286.88 g/mt gold across 2 m. More typically, intercepts are being reported in the range of 5 to 20 g/mt. (www.obanmining.com) Mirasol Resources has signed an explo- ration and option agreement with Cerro Vanguardia S.A. providing for exploration of Mirasol's Claudia gold-silver project in Santa Cruz province Argentina. Cerro Vanguardia is owned 92.5% by AngloGold Ashanti and 7.5% by Fomicruz, the Santa Cruz provincial mining company. The Claudia project abuts the Cer- ro Vanguardia gold-silver mine property, which has produced 1.25 million oz of gold over the past fve years. Mirasol ex- ploration on the project has identifed tar- gets that are within reasonable trucking distance of Cerro Vanguardia's processing facilities and have the potential to be de- veloped as satellites to the Cerro Vanguar- dia operation. The Mirasol/Cerro Vanguardia explora- tion and option agreement is structured in three phases, which, if pursued to their conclusion, allow Cerro Vanguardia to earn a 65% interest in the Claudia proj- ect by delivering a preliminary economic assessment with an NI 43-101 compliant resource of not less than 350,000 oz of gold in the inferred, or higher, resource classifcation, with grades that support proftable economic extraction based upon the Cerro Vanguardia mine cost structure. (www.mirasolresources.com) Calibre Mining reported ongoing prog- ress at its La Luz gold project in north- east Nicaragua, where Centerra Gold can earn a 70% interest by investing $7 mil- lion in exploration before December 31, 2019. Work to date has defned three high-priority targets. Current feldwork is concentrating on an extensive trenching program, testing geological, geochemical, and geophysical anomalies generated by exploration to date, with a goal of priori - tizing drill targets for additional diamond drilling in 2016. A recently completed drilling program on the Cerro Aeropuerto deposit tested the continuity and orientation of previous- ly identifed primary gold-bearing struc- tures. Mineralization has been identifed across 250 m of strike and to between 175 and 275 m below surface. Intercepts included 53.7 m grading 10.47 g/mt gold in one hole, with an interval of 2.7 m grading 120.58 g/mt gold uncut. (www.calibremining.com)

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