Underground drilling at the Lawyers property in north-central British Columbia has confirmed that the Phoenix zone is both open to depth and along strike to the east.
Cheni Gold Mines (TSE), owner of the property, recently completed mining and milling a total of 5,439 tons from the Phoenix zone at an average grade of 1.35 oz. gold and 62.9 oz. silver per ton.
Cumulative recovery for both a dore and concentrate product totalled 91.7% for gold and 89% for silver.
Jack Vincent, vice-president exploration, said the zone was named for its potential to breathe new life into the troubled operation.
The Lawyers underground mine originally went into production in 1989 but the company downgraded reserves in 1990, significantly shortening the mine’s life. The last ore from the Lawyers mine was milled this summer.
The recent drilling, totalling 19 holes, probed the downdip extension of the near-vertical Phoenix zone with two tiers of holes spaced about 50 ft. apart. Vincent said the recently mined stope extends from surface to a depth of about 100 ft., and although the structure continues below that, values were not economic.
Vincent said the drilling picked up ore-grade values on the same structure about 100 ft. below the bottom of the stope. The deepest hole extends the zone to a depth of about 260 ft.
Vincent hopes to get board approval for a $500,000 exploration program starting next spring, including surface drilling to further test the Phoenix zone as well as a number of other nearby silicified structures. Selected drilling results include hole PX92-10 which intersected 3.9 ft. grading 3.15 oz. gold and 91.9 oz. silver and hole PX92-14 which intersected 11.1 ft. grading 1.30 oz. gold and 52.5 oz. silver.
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