McEwen Mining releases Black Fox drill results

Since acquiring the Black Fox complex in northern Ontario last October, McEwen Mining (TSX: MUX; NYSE: MUX) has set aside $15 million for exploration in 2018 to test for extensions of existing resources, follow up on significant drill results, and investigate new targets.

The complex — which is made up of two land packages totalling 1,750 hectares and covering 11 km of the Destor-Porcupine Fault — includes the Black Fox mine and mill and the Froome and Grey Fox deposits.

The company has drilled 66,900 metres so far this year, and released results earlier today from three exploration targets — Stock East, Froome and Gibson — as well as intercepts from underground delineation drilling at Black Fox.

At Stock East, the company is following up on historic intersections and geophysical targets. It currently is operating three drill rigs and infilling the target and testing the depth extension of the Stock mine below a depth of 500 metres. The Stock mine produced 137,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 5.5 grams gold per tonne from 1989 until 2005.

Drill intersections from Stock East include 12.20 metres grading 3.39 grams gold per tonne from 375.80 metres downhole (drill hole S18-08), 17.90 metres grading 2.62 grams gold from 143 metres downhole (S18-19), and 8 metres of 1.60 grams gold from 226 metres downhole (S18-18).

Exploration drilling at Froome, meanwhile, has found a mineralized structure in the footwall, about 150 metres north of the Main Foome deposit, which sits about 850 metres to the west of the Black Fox open pit.

Notable intercepts from the drilling at Froome include 19.42 grams gold over 3 metres from 88 metres downhole, including 52.70 grams gold over 1 metre (18PR-G243), and 9.46 grams gold over 3 metres from 83 metres downhole (18PR-G259).

At the Gibson target, adjacent to the Grey Fox deposit, intercepts include 10.81 grams gold over 6 metres from 521 metres downhole (18GF-1079) and 4.57 grams gold over 4 metres from 112 metres downhole (18GF-1066).

A significant portion of underground drilling at Black Fox was aimed at confirming and expanding known mineralized trends close to current workings that could be brought into production quickly, the company says. Drilling in the Central Zone returned 12.72 grams gold over 7 metres from 63 metres downhole (560-FO98-14) while notable intercepts from the Deep Central Zone included 141.19 grams gold over 2.67 metres from 66 metres (800-F302-15) and 43.45 grams gold over 9 metres from 52 metres (800-F302-16).

Black Fox underground currently contains 2.27 million tonnes grading 7.90 grams gold for 576,000 ounces of contained gold in the indicated category at a cut-off of 3 grams gold.

Froome and Grey Fox underground together have 3.12 million tonnes averaging 6.22 grams gold for 624,000 oz. contained gold in the indicated category, and 578,000 inferred tonnes of 6.37 grams gold for 119,000 oz. gold.