Infill and extension drilling by
Barrick is drilling off a reserve at the project, a joint venture with Montreal-based
Tulawaka, which has a penchant for delivering bonanza grades in drilling, is shaping up to be a major gold deposit in its own right, following a 63,000-metre drilling campaign in 2000 and an expanded program of resource and reserve delineation this year.
The recent drilling tested extensions of the East zone, the principal body of mineralization on the Tulawaka property. The known mineralized strike length on the zone is about 1.2 km, and the highest-grade intersection was a 1-metre interval that ran 1,061 grams gold per tonne (about 31 oz. per ton), near the west end of the zone.
Most of the new intersections were 0.5-1.5 metres long at relatively shallow depths, with grades that generally ranged from 10 to 45 grams per tonne. Wider intersections — 3-6.7 metres in core length — showed lower grades in the range of 3-10 grams.
While most of the new holes tested extensions to the known shallow resource, some deeper intersections indicate possible extensions below the 135-metre limit of the current resource estimate. Hole DD-140 intersected 4.6 metres grading 9.5 grams gold per tonne, and hole DD-191 cut a 1-metre length grading 10.2 grams. In DD-118, a 1.5-metre intersection ran 18.4 grams gold.
US$16 million was budgeted for the property this year, bankrolling a 140,000-metre program of drilling, engineering design, metallurgical testing, environmental impact studies, and permit applications.
Minires du Nord is evaluating Barrick’s data and plans to have an independent resource estimate ready before the end of June.
The most recent resource estimate, announced in April of last year, calculated 1.7 million tonnes grading 19 grams gold per tonne in the East zone, to a depth of 135 metres. Of that, 1.4 million tonnes grading 18.9 grams fell into the measured and indicated categories.
A smaller, inferred resource, at the West zone, was estimated at just over 700,000 tonnes grading 2.9 grams gold, down to a depth of 30 metres.
The West zone is seeing some limited drilling, largely devoted to a reassessment of its geology. One hole, DD-185, cut four mineralized intersections, including one of 2.8 metres grading 6.4 grams gold starting at a down-hole depth of 32.2 metres.
About 61 metres down-hole, a lower-grade interval graded 1.4 grams over 9.8 metres, followed by a 0.9-metre interval running 2.6 grams. At depth, about 103 metres down-hole, a 1-metre intersection graded 2 grams gold. Both the deeper intersections are below the limit of the earlier resource calculation but showed grades comparable to the West zone average.
More drilling is scheduled for the West zone in the next quarter.
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