DRC drills Afton

Vancouver — DRC Resources (DRC-T) continues to table encouraging results from infill drilling at the Afton copper project, near Kamloops, B.C.

The drilling is part of a prefeasibility study, which will include recommendations for mining methods, mineral processing, and permitting, as well as cost estimates associated with underground mining.

Among the highlights is hole 79, which was drilled at minus 83 and collared near the southwestern end of the Main zone. The hole appears to have intersected the eastern hangingwall of the mineral zone; it intersected 224 metres averaging 1.13% copper, plus 0.74 gram gold, 0.08 gram palladium and 2.32 grams silver per tonne starting at a down-hole depth of 608 metres.

Hole 80 was drilled at an angle of minus 90 and collared midway along the Main zone. The hole intersected 208 metres averaging 0.44% copper, 0.31 gram gold, 0.14 gram palladium and 0.99 gram silver starting at 306 metres down-hole.

The copper-gold mineralization has been traced over a strike length of 1 km and remains open beyond the indicated mineral resource boundaries to the northeast and southwest. DRC reports that the infill drilling has confirmed the continuity of the grade.

The mineralization is hosted in a steeply plunging body that strikes southwest from the base of the 274-metre-deep open pit. This structure, known as the Main zone, averages 70 metres wide, 600 metres long and 775 metres deep. In addition, DRC has delineated the Northeast Extension zone, which measures 30 metres wide and is an en echelon continuation of the Main zone.

The Main zone has an indicated resource of about 34.3 million tonnes grading 1.55% copper, plus 1.14 grams gold, 0.125 gram palladium and 3.42 grams silver per tonne, whereas the Northeast Extension zone has an indicated resource of about 1.1 million tonnes averaging 1.02% copper, 0.86 gram gold, 0.1 gram palladium and 5.49 grams silver. A cutoff grade of 0.5% copper was used for these calculations.

The Afton deposit is in the 35-km-long Iron Mask batholith at the northwestern end of the Iron Mask pluton. These intrusive rocks consist of Triassic-aged diorites and gabbros hosted in andesitic and basaltic rocks breccias, tuffs, mudstones argillites and limestones of the Nicola Group.