Vancouver — At the Tulsequah Chief massive sulphide property in northwestern British Columbia, an ongoing 8,000-metre drill program has intersected a gold-rich zone 90 metres west of the current resource.
The junior tested the downdip extension of this mineralization, with holes 3078 and 3079 intersecting narrow zinc-rich zones with traces of visible gold. Assay results are pending.
Moving 200 metres west of the main deposit, three holes targeted a mineralized lens, dubbed the F zone, which was discovered earlier this year. Holes 3075 and 3076 tested the downdip extension of mineralization intersected in hole 3072 (8.1 metres grading 2.56% zinc, 0.22% lead, 0.55% copper, 19.65 grams silver and 1.26 gram gold). Both holes intersected a thick section of intensely altered, mineralized pyrite-rich rhyolite, but the only significant values came from a 0.9-metre section in hole 3076 that returned 12.8% zinc, 2.06% lead, 0.27% copper, 256 grams silver and 3.23 grams gold.
Redcorp believes this mineralization marks the distal equivalent of the main deposit and that the F zone lies on the western side of a fault known as 4000E, which has offset the mine stratigraphy by about 100 metres.
Underground drilling will continue until late October, with the rig testing the F zone target across the 4400E fault, as well as the western extension of the main deposit.
The 150-sq.-km property consists of two past-producing underground mines, Tulsequah Chief and Big Bull, which lie alongside the Tulsequah River, 100 km south of the town of Atlin, B.C., and 65 km northeast of Juneau, Alaska. The property hosts a historical measured and indicated resource of 5.9 million tonnes grading 1.42% copper, 1.26% lead and 6.72% zinc, plus 2.59 grams gold and 107.4 grams silver per tonne. Three million additional tonnes grading 1.1% copper, 1.19% lead, 6.38% zinc, 2.42 grams gold and 107.9 grams silver are in the inferred category.
Based on a 1995 feasibility study by Rescan Engineering, Redfern sees potential for a 2,470-tonne- per-day (900,000-tonne-per-year) underground mine capable of producing a gold-rich gravity concentrate, as well as zinc, lead and copper concentrates. The study used metal prices of US53 per lb. for zinc, US25 per lb. for lead, US90 per lb. for copper, US$300 per oz. for gold, and US$5.80 per oz. for silver. The projected payback period is 3.6 years, an annual operating profits are pegged at $50 million. Zinc production accounts for half the projected revenue.
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