Tamerlane cuts more Pine Point high-grade

Drilling by Tamerlane Ventures (TAM-V) has returned more high-grade lead and zinc values from the R-190 deposit on its Pine Point project in the Northwest Territories.

The latest batch of three holes from the company’s summer drill program are highlighted by hole no. 9, which encountered 32 metres averaging 12.1% lead 19% zinc, beginning at a depth of 132.7 metres.

Hole no. 10 yielded 18.2 metres (from 139.4 metres below surface) of 4.7% lead and 17.7% zinc. Hole no. 7 cut multiple mineralized intervals, including a 9.8-metre section running 11.1% lead and 36.7% zinc.

Tamerlane says the intersections represent true thicknesses.

Assay results for four remaining holes are pending. Another three holes collared on the center of the R-10 deposit were abandoned just short of their target owing to poor ground conditions. Similarly, drilling on the GO3 deposit has been postponed until the winter freeze-up.

Previous drilling on the GO3 zone returned up to 49 metres (from 55 m) of 4.5% lead and 12.3% zinc. The W85 zone yielded 41 metres (from 63 m) of 3.7% lead and 10.7% zinc, and 27 metres (from 79 m) of 6.1% lead and 13.7% zinc.

Looking ahead, the company will use the drill results as the basis for a feasibility study. A portion of the core samples collected so far will be subject to dense media separation tests this fall. The company will also carry out hardness and abrasion tests on large samples of ore and host rock found in the previous operation’s dumps. The company has also retained EBA Engineering Consultants to complete an environmental baseline study as part of the feasibility study.

Cominco mined some 64 million tonnes of ore averaging 3.1% lead and 7% zinc at Pine Point from the mid-1960s through the late 1980s. The company left behind 34 drill-delineated deposits; historical resources total 71 million tonnes grading 1.6% lead and 4.2% zinc in several separate zones. The estimate predates National Instrument 43-101.

Mineralization at Pine Point is characteristic of Mississippi Valley Type, carbonate-hosted lead-zinc sulphides. The typical metal sulphides deposited as replacement minerals are galena, sphalerite, marcasite and pyrite.

Shares in Tamerlane were 4.5, or 20%, higher at 27 in afternoon trading following the news on Sept. 22.