Drills turn at Duck Pond (June 05, 2000)

Joint-venture partners Thundermin Resources (THR-T) and Queenston Mining (QMI-T) have resumed drilling at their Duck Pond base metal project in central Newfoundland. The new phase of drilling will concentrate on the South Moose Pond and Duck Pond West areas of the property, which lies about 30 km southeast of Buchans.

At South Moose Pond, about 10 km northeast of the main Duck Pond copper-zinc deposits, electromagnetic and gravity anomalies coincide with a body of highly altered volcanic rocks with disseminated base-metal sulphide minerals. Drilling had started on the first hole at South Moose Pond when work had to be suspended for spring breakup.

Two untested conductive bodies, picked up both in airborne and ground electromagnetic surveys, will be the targets at Duck Pond West, which is a short distance west of the known Duck Pond deposit. Geochemical surveys reveal high concentrations of zinc in glacial till soils near the Duck Pond West geophysical anomalies, and mapping shows that the area is underlain by highly altered felsic volcanic rocks, generally favourable for massive sulphide mineralization.

The partners will also be drilling stepout and infill holes on the Lower Duck massive sulphide body, where previous drilling blocked out a resource of 1 million tonnes grading 2.8% copper, 5% zinc and 1.4% lead, plus 32.5 grams silver and 0.6 gram gold per tonne.

A revised resource calculation, based on the joint venture’s 1999 drilling programs, should be available in the next few weeks, and metallurgical testing for a final feasibility study is expected to show some results in June. The final feasibility study is expected in late 2000.

A previous resource calculation by Noranda (nor-t) estimated a total of 6 million tonnes grading 3.4% copper, 6.4% zinc, 1.1% lead, 61.4 grams silver and 0.9 gram gold per tonne, in four massive sulphide deposits at the Duck Pond property.