Afton moves to prefeasibility

Vancouver — DRC Resources (DRC-T) has hired Vancouver-based Behre Dolbear & Co. to perform a prefeasibility study of the Afton copper-gold project, near Kamloops, B.C.

The study will focus on the mineral resource, mining methods, mineral processing, and permitting, as well as estimate the capital and operating costs associated with development of an underground mine.

To date, copper-gold mineralization has been traced over a 1,000-metre strike length, and the mineralized zone remains open beyond the indicated mineral resource boundaries to the northeast and southwest.

The last assays from ongoing drilling proved encouraging. Hole 75 intersected 300 metres averaging 1.09% copper, plus 0.7 gram gold, 0.09 gram palladium and 1.89 grams silver per tonne, starting at a down-hole depth of 384 metres. This included a 108-metre section that averaged 1.73% copper, 1.15 gram gold, 0.05 gram palladium and 3.03 grams silver.

Mineralization is hosted in a steeply plunging body that strikes southwest from the base of the 274-metre-deep open pit. This structure, known as the Main zone, averages 70 metres wide and 600 metres long, and is 775 metres deep. In addition to it, DRC has delineated the Northeast Extension zone, which measures 30 metres wide and is an en echelon continuation of the Main zone.

The Main zone has an indicated resource of 34.3 million tonnes grading 1.55% copper, plus 1.14 grams gold, 0.125 gram palladium and 3.42 grams silver per tonne, whereas the Northeast Extension zone has an indicated resource of 1.1 million tonnes averaging 1.02% copper, 0.86 gram gold, 0.1 gram palladium and 5.49 grams silver. A cutoff grade of 0.5% copper was used for these calculations.

The Afton deposit is in the 35-km-long Iron Mask batholith at the northwestern end of the Iron Mask pluton. These intrusive rocks consist of Triassic-aged diorites and gabbros hosted in andesitic and basaltic rocks breccias, tuffs, mudstones argillites and limestones of the Nicola Group.