Recent drilling at Izok Lake, 130 km north of Yellowknife, N.W.T., makes the copper-zinc deposit “on the borderline” of being economically viable, says Minnova (TSE) President David Watkins.
About 8,000 metres of drilling has been completed on the project since mid-March. The best results among the latest four holes include hole 206, which intersected 8.2 metres grading 4.6% copper and 8.5% zinc, and hole 211, which intersected 19.8 metres grading 1.2% copper and 8.4% zinc. Both intercepts were cut within a core length of about 100 metres on the Inukshuk zone.
The results were announced by operator Minnova just before Metall Mining’s (TSE) annual meeting. Metall gained a 40% interest in the property with a $10-million cash payment and a commitment to pay $2 million when a feasibility study is completed and another $3 million when a production decision is made.
Watkins said the property’s known reserves of 13.4 million tonnes grading 3.2% copper, 14.4% zinc, 1.3% lead and 74 grams per tonne silver put the deposit on the verge of being economic, even though tonnage implications of the new drilling have not been determined.
Metall President Klaus Zeitler said he believes the deposit needs to be about 14-15 million tonnes in order to be economic “which I’m sure we’ll have by the time the feasibility is complete.”
Discovery of the Inukshuk zone “confirms Minnova’s and Metall’s confidence in the potential to increase reserves on the Izok property,” said the companies in a joint news release.
The project has an estimated capital cost of $350 million, said Zeitler, which includes building the mine, mill, a winter road and a port on Canada’s Arctic coast. The partners are prepared to finance the entire project, but Zeitler says he expects the federal and territorial governments and other mining companies may contribute to some of the infrastructure costs. Metall has four major new mining projects at various stages of development around the world and expects to bring a new mine into operation “practically every year for
the next four years,” said Zeitler: Dikili, a gold mine
in Turkey in mid-1993; Bougrine, a zinc mine in Tunisia in 1994; Cayeli, a copper-zinc mine in Turkey in late 1994 or early 1995; and Izok Lake in late 1996 or early 1997.
Izok Lake is by far the largest in terms of capital cost. The others are expected to cost about $210 million combined.
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