Infill drilling by
The drilling blocked out 419,600 tonnes of new reserves at grades of 8.1% zinc and 1.7% copper, plus 46.9 grams silver and 0.1 gram gold per tonne. All the new reserves are in the mine’s 97 zone, one of three mineralized portions of the deposit.
Langlois has been closed since 2001 as a result of low zinc prices. New feasibility studies are in hand, but Breakwater is waiting for the zinc market to improve before resuming mining.
The increase in reserves enlarges the proven and probable figure to 3.3 million tonnes grading 10.8% zinc, 0.8% copper, 52 grams silver and 0.1 gram gold per tonne. The mine has a resource of 6.2 million tonnes running 10.9% zinc, 0.7% copper, 51 grams silver and 0.1 gram gold per tonne; the resource figure includes the reserves.
The new reserves were mainly drilled between the 13 and 15 levels, at vertical depths of 750-900 metres. The true widths of the mineralized intersections were generally in the 3- to 4.5-metre range, though some were as wide as 6.8 metres. Zinc grades ranged from 1.7% to 22.9%, copper grades from 0.1% to 9%, and silver grades from 16 to just over 300 grams per tonne.
Exploration drilling outside reserve blocks on those levels, and at depth below 900 metres, encountered mineralization of similar grades over similar widths, but the drilling is too sparsely distributed to justify bringing the mineralization into reserves.
Four holes drilled above the mine’s 6 Level, at depths of around 350 metres, also indicate resources above the reserves currently blocked out on the 97 zone. Ranging from 2% to 33.3% zinc, the mineralization has true widths of 3 to 6.4 metres.
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