Vancouver — The results from an eight-hole drill program over Rimfire Minerals’ (RFM-V) RDN gold-silver property has prompted Newmont Mining (NEM-N) to plan a second round of drilling on the promising project in northern British Columbia.
The project is located 40 km north of the high-grade Eskay Creek gold-rich massive-sulphide mine.
The latest drill program tested geophysical anomalies associated with the contact between felsic volcanics and overlying mudstones.
Five holes were collared on the 1.1-km-long Wedge zone conductor, where drilling in 1991 cut 101 grams gold over 2 metres. Two of these holes cut the favourable contact horizon.
Hole 11 returned 1.5 metres grading 1.4 grams gold per tonne and 0.55% zinc from 60 metres down-hole.
Hole 17 cut 1.5 metres grading 3.8 grams gold and 0.18% zinc from 111 metres down-hole. Further up the hole in the felsic volcanics, a 0.5-metre section ran 4.2 grams gold and 5.7% zinc. Petrographic analysis confirms the presence of sulphosalts (tetrahedrite-tennantite) and orpiment characteristic of an epithermal environment.
The remaining three holes tested the Sand Lake, Marcasite Gossan and Boundary zones. They failed to return any significant mineralization.
The 21-km-long property is underlain by early-to-middle Jurassic stratigraphy, which is similar in age, lithology and alteration to that hosting the Eskay Creek deposit.
Newmont aims to follow up the results with a new 1,100-metre drill program. This is slated to start shortly.
Newmont can earn a 51% stake in the project by making cash payments of $140,000 and spending $3.5 million by the end of 2003. The major can then take a 75% interest by completing a feasibility study and paying Rimfire an additional $450,000 by the end
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