Cominco drills to 1,600 ft at Tul;sequah Chief mine

Junior partner Redfern Resources (VSE) said the results of this year’s program on the former producer “exceeded expectations,” as eight of the ten holes intersected base metal values with significant precious metal values.

While the drilling is too wide- spaced to make meaningful tonnage and grade implications, the results do confirm the potential for existing reserves to be expanded significantly at depth.

Cominco also appears to be optimistic. The company noted that a 3-hole tier (16, 18 and 21), the deepest drilled to date, “indicates the existence of good thicknesses and excellent grades open to depth.”

At the start of this year’s program the project had reserves in all categories of 2.38 million tons grading 2.03% copper, 1.25% lead, 6.28% zinc, 0.075 oz gold and 2.68 oz silver.

This year’s $1.8-million program included completion of a 560-ft crosscut drive to locate a hanging- wall drill station suitable for deep testing of the deposit from the 5400 level.

Ten holes totalling 16,000 ft were drilled from this location. One hole intersected a dyke and other intersected 17 ft of barren massive pyrite. Results of the eight holes intersecting base metal sulphides with precious metal values are: true thicknesscopperleadzincsilvergold holeestimated%%%oz/tonoz/ton 89-1210 ft2.25 0.48 3.841.360.04 89-1340 ft1.03 1.39 6.242.900.07 89-15 3 ft1.08 1.6724.103.010.05 12 ft0.93 1.7310.671.140.06 89-16 5 ft1.30 2.1315.957.400.11 89-1825 ft0.87 2.1512.095.400.08 89-1916 ft1.30 1.7511.443.390.12

Assays are expected shortly for holes 89-20 and 89-21. However, Cominco reported that hole 89-21 penetrated the sulphide unit midway between holes 16 and 18 and “is estimated to contain similar grades over a 52-ft true thickness.”

John Greig, president of Redfern, said this year’s program confirms that the deposit has the potential to surpass the 5-million-ton threshold that would be required to resume production.

“All the individual lenses appear to be coalescing into one single large zone at depth that is still completely open,” he said. “We’re very confident we have a continuous sheet of mineralization with values increasing at depth, but that will have to be proven by closer spaced drilling next season.”

The camp at Tulsequah Chief is being winterized and material is being shipped in preparation for resumption of exploration drifting and drilling in 1990. A mill no longer exists on the property.

According to Redfern, the 1990 work program will involve more drifting to set up new drill stations to continue testing the deposit at depth. This wide-spaced drilling would then be followed by an infill drill program.

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