Seeking to increase the resource at its Troy copper-silver mine in northwestern Montana, Revett Minerals (RVM-T, RVMIF-O) has started a mine-site exploration program.
The program will test targets in the Lower Revett quartzite, about 360 metres stratigraphically below the mineralization in the Troy mine. Previous holes drilled by Asarco in the late 1980s had returned mineralized intersections of 3 metres to 5 metres width in parts of the Lower Revett, a result that was confirmed by Revett Minerals in 2006.
Revett also plans to drill on the JF deposit, where Asarco had blocked out a resource of 10 million tonnes grading 0.4% copper and 48 grams silver per tonne. The estimate was based on very limited drilling, and dates from 1992, before current disclosure rules.
JF is in the “I-beds” sequence in the Lower Revett, and is a stratabound zone about 240 by 300 metres in area, averaging 8 metres thick. It is 2.4 km south of, and stratigraphically equivalent to, the targets below the Troy mine.
The Troy mine itself had a reserve of 11 million tonnes grading 0.6% copper and 48 grams silver per tonne at the end of 2005. To the end of September 2006, Revett had mined 670,000 tonnes at 0.47% copper and 40 grams silver, for production of 2,665 tonnes copper and 748,000 oz. silver.
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