The first hole of this year’s drilling program on the Blende property in the Yukon returned an 87-metre intersection grading 1.6% lead, 2.6% zinc and 17.2 grams silver per tonne.
The drilling is part of a $2.5-million program funded by Billiton Metals.
Billiton may earn a 50% interest in the Blende property from NDU Resources (VSE) by spending a total of $4 million by year-end.
The company spent about $1.5 million on the property last year outlining a preliminary open-pit reserve of 11.5 million tonnes grading 3.0% lead, 2.2% zinc and 50 grams silver. The figure is based on a cutoff grade of 2% combined lead and zinc and a stripping ratio of 2-to-1.
The recent hole was drilled in the East zone, about 2,000 metres to the east of the West zone reserve area. True width of the intersection is estimated to be between 85% and 90% of the intersected width.
Twelve holes have been completed to date in the current program, with two holes extending the West zone to the west. Eight of the remaining ten holes intersected the East zone while the two other holes, drilled to test geophysical conductors on the fringe of the East zone, failed to intersect any mineralization.
The 1991 drilling program will include about 12,000 metres of drilling over a 6,000-metre long target identified by mineralized float and soil geochemistry.
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