New Pacific Metals (NUX-V, NUXFF-O) has intersected high-grade gold in channel samples from a narrow vein on its 57-sq.-km HNK project, in China’s Guangdong province.
The exploration program at HNK, 180 km northwest of Guangzhou, has entailed 1,300 metres of horizontal tunnelling in four levels at depths between 180 and 260 metres. The tunnelling is designed to follow the main mineralized vein, V9, which has been traced to 400 metres depth.
The latest discovery has cut mineralization with much higher gold grades than previous intercepts. It was found in a 28-metre-long drift along the V9 vein at the 180-metre-level tunnel. The average grade in channel samples taken over the 28-metre drift is 295 grams gold per tonne, 124 grams silver, 1.33% lead and 1.93% zinc, and the average true width is 0.37 metre.
The best channel sample was No. 170, which cut 0.5 metre (true width) of 621 grams gold, 181 grams silver, 2% lead and 3.8% zinc. Three other samples returned much lower grades, with gold between 2.2 and 5.7 grams, and widths of around 0.3 metre. Another five samples cut 230-450 grams gold in intercepts 0.3-0.5 metre wide.
To date, the company has completed 51 drill holes totalling 15,000 metres. New Pacific is planning to complete another 2,000 metres of tunnelling, drifting, crosscuts and raises on the V9 vein to a depth of 300 metres in 40- metre depth intervals, and on the R1 vein on the 195-metre-deep tunnel.
The company would like to produce a resource or reserve estimate and to mine enough material for a bulk sample for a metallurgical test.
The findings would be used to prepare a technical report and apply for a mining permit. Preliminary metallurgical tests using crushing and flotation have returned recoveries above 90% for gold, silver, zinc and lead.
New Pacific is 24%-owned by Silvercorp Metals (SVM-T, SVM-X), China’s largest silver miner.
On the news, New Pacific shares rose 19¢ to 80¢, with 27,000 shares changing hands. The company has 31.7 million shares outstanding, or 38.3 million shares fully diluted. The shares have been trading between 30¢ and $3.12 over the past 12 months. On Dec. 31, New Pacific had working capital of $11.8 million.
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