Mineral exploration has uncovered a promising new geological horizon near Flin Flon while opening up the adjacent area to more potential ore discoveries, an exploration company reports.
Callinex Mines said Monday the first hole in a second-phase drilling campaign at its Pine Bay Project intersected copper, zinc, gold and silver mineralization.
“Geological and geophysical indicators suggest that there is excellent potential to expand this mineralization with higher grades as we conduct further drilling into this system,” Max Porterfield, president and CEO of Callinex, said in a news release.
Callinex reports that geological and geophysical interpretations indicate the drill hole is potentially situated at the margins of a larger mineralized body, though that remains to be seen. Assays included 7.4 metres of 1.58 per cent copper equivalent, the company said.
The company has given a name to the volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) horizon revealed by the hole: the New Horizon.
Callinex said it is “highly encouraged” by the New Horizon, as it has not previously been explored.
The New Horizon is located about three km northeast of the long-defunct Centennial mine once operated by Hudbay. Hudbay is not quite finished with the Centennial mine area, having commissioned drilling of its own there.
Callinex said interpretation of the drill core from its own hole indicates the multiple-metal-containing mineralization encountered is hosted within the same stratigraphic sequence and host rocks as the former Centennial mine.
Callinex expects to complete a step-out drilling campaign to delineate the extent of the newly discovered mineralization this winter.
The company’s winter exploration program will utilize lake-based drilling, allowing for shallower holes to follow up on the new mineralization.
The New Horizon is part of Callinex’s Pine Bay Project, located 16 km east of Flin Flon and covering an area of about 6,000 square hectares.
Callinex announced in August it had commenced the second phase of a drilling campaign near Flin Flon with the goal of discovering high-grade copper- and zinc-rich mineralization near Hudbay’s 777 mine.
To that end, Callinex said it would target two properties: the Flin Flon Project, a narrow, 2,455-hectare swath of land that extends about a dozen kilometres north of Flin Flon, and the Pine Bay Project.
At Pine Bay, the company said it planned to test several newly identified geophysical targets located at depth and along strike of a “highly prospective” deposit known as the Sourdough deposit.
The Sourdough deposit area had not been drilled using modern geophysics, Callinex said, with most historic drilling completed more than 65 years ago.
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