Callinex intersects high-grade copper at Rainbow deposit

A step-out drill hole at Callinex Mines’ (TSXV: CNX; US-OTC: CLLXF) Rainbow deposit in Manitoba returned 7.55 metres grading 4.13% copper, 0.64 gram gold per tonne, 11.08 grams silver per tonne and 0.90% zinc (5.01% copper-equivalent) at a depth of 405 metres below surface.

The drill hole (PBM-121) was a 257-metre vertical step-out above the company’s most recent high-grade intersection in drill hole PBM-113-W2, which cut 5.70 metres of 3.57% copper, 0.54 gram gold, 21.41 grams silver and 1.56% zinc (4.72% copper equivalent).  It was also 101 metres above drill hole PBM-118, which returned 7.77 metres of 3.30% copper, 0.72 gram gold, 7.48 grams silver and 4.42% zinc (5.55% copper-equivalent) starting from a vertical depth of 505 metres.

Max Porterfield, the company’s president and CEO, said PBM-121 has now more than doubled the vertical extent of its 100% owned Rainbow deposit, part of its Pine Bay project in Flin Flon, and noted in a press release that the deposit “has the potential to be accessible by a ramp, which in turn would translate to a more attractive development plan.”

Drill core from Callinex Mines’ Pine Bay project in Manitoba. Credit: Callinex Mines.

The company has two drill rigs turning at Rainbow, and since drilling resumed at the project in Febuary, Callinex has completed nine holes (three holes were abandoned) for a total of 7,600 metres out of a 30,000 metre program budgeted for 2021.

Callinex has also started two geophysical surveys along the trend that hosts the Rainbow and Sourdough deposits and the past-producing Centennial mine. An induced polarization (IP) survey is being completed by Abitibi Geophysics using its OreVision IP system, which Callinex says “can reveal targets at four times the depth of conventional IP.”

“The Rainbow deposit was discovered by utilizing the OreVision IP system as a critical vectoring tool,” Callinex says in its news release. “The objective of the survey is to detect pyrite-rich mineralization that may host high-grade copper and zinc up to depths of 580 metres along the favorable volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) trend that hosts the known deposits.”

The 24-km IP survey underway, the company adds, “will span a linear 3.2 km north-south trend with line widths up to 1.4 km at 150 metre spacing.”

In addition, Koop Geotechnical is completing a 13.4 line km deep penetrating surface pulse electromagnetic survey (SPEM) covering an additional 10 km of the Rainbow trend to the south, Callinex says.

The Pine Bay project, which covers more than 6,000 sq. hectares in the Flin Flon Greenstone Belt, is about 16 km from Hudbay Minerals’ (TSX: HBM; NYSE: HBM) Flin Flon processing facilities.

Over the last year, Callinex has traded within a range of 44¢ and $6.50 per share and at presstime were trading at $3.15 apiece. The company has about 11.8 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of about $37 million.