Mar 11 2024Reviewed by Lexie Corner
Generation Mining Limited ("Gen Mining" or the "Company") announces that it has signed a contract with Boart Longyear Canada for up to 8,000 meters of exploration drilling on a number of high-prospectivity copper targets north and west of its Marathon Palladium-Copper Project in Northwestern Ontario. Two phases of drilling as well as numerous field programs are planned. The winter program is focused on the Biiwobik prospect, which sits just north of the Marathon Palladium-Copper deposit and the summer drill program includes the Four Dams and Sally targets.
Map of Marathon Palladium project showing locations of 2024 exploration programs. Image Credit: Business Wire
The drill and crew have mobilized to site and drilling has commenced. The aim of the first hole at Biiwobik is to better define the extent of the Powerline and Chonolith domains which will aid in determining the potential to expand the Marathon Palladium-Copper deposit or develop a fourth pit increasing the life of the mine beyond 13.5 years.
The winter phase of the program will comprise approximately 3,000 meters and is designed to potentially extend the northern Marathon Pit, targeting an area adjacent to the north pit and extending 400 meters to the north. Highlights from the 2021 drill program (see news release dated September 2, 2021) include drill intercepts of 46 meters grading 0.46% copper, 1.01 g/t palladium, 0.11 g/t gold and 0.17 g/t platinum starting at a depth 50 meters (Figures 1 and 2). These holes were drilled to follow up a 2006 hole which returned 100.5 meters grading 0.58% copper, 0.93 g/t palladium, 0.1 g/t gold and 0.25 g/t platinum, starting at a depth of 215.8 meters. The 2024 drilling is designed to test the downdip and along strike extension of mineralization to better define the upside potential of the Biiwobik prospect.
The summer phase of the program will comprise approximately 2,000 meters of exploration drilling at the Four Dams prospect and 1,000 meters at the Sally deposit.
The Four Dams prospect (Figure 3) hosts an approximately 250-metre-wide by 60-metre-thick ultramafic pipe which contains abundant higher density minerals such as olivine and apatite along with semi-massive to massive sulphides occurring at its base. The concentration of these higher density minerals as well as massive sulphides is interpreted to be the result of gravity driven accumulation of heavier minerals which often leads to the pooling of larger massive sulphide bodies at depth. A combination of down-dip drilling and borehole electromagnetic surveying will be used to vector towards these bodies. The last drill program targeting the main Four Dams pipe occurred between 2005-2006 with results including 0.56% copper over 62.2 meters, 0.38% copper over 100.05 meters and 0.35% copper of 73.5 meters. The pipe has only been drilled to a vertical depth of 200 meters and remains open at depth.
A second target will be drilled approximately 275 meters southeast of the main pipe, where three holes drilled between 2013 and 2017 encountered similar rock units that make up the main Four Dams pipe, with the best results being 0.27% copper over 64 meters. Borehole electromagnetic surveys carried out in 2017 and a subsequent magnetotelluric survey completed in 2020 both indicate the presence of an untested conductor immediately down dip from this intercept, which will be a focus of the 2024 drill program.
Drilling at the Sally Deposit (Figure 4) will utilize a helicopter portable drill rig and consist of a single hole totalling approximately 1000 meters. This hole will follow up on the successful drill program carried out by Gen Mining in 2019 (see news release dated December 17, 2019). A subsequent borehole electromagnetic survey at the end of 2019 and magnetotelluric survey in 2020 both indicate the presence of a large untested conductor just below the 2019 intercept. This conductor occurs along the same geological horizon which hosts extremely high-grade outcrop samples with grades up to 9.11% copper, 185 g/t palladium. 2.83 g/t gold and 0.45 g/t platinum.
Additional surficial field programs are planned at Sally as well as the region between the Sally and Geordie deposits, where mapping and sampling by past operators has indicated the potential for economic copper mineralization (Figure 1).
The company has also engaged ALS Goldspot to carry out a 2D prospectivity analysis of the Company’s entire exploration land package. This project is the culmination of over four years of data compilation by Gen Mining and will include over 60 years of exploration data from various past operators. Gen Mining will work closely with Goldspot’s team of geologists, geophysicists and geochemists to prepare the data for analysis using their proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology. Results from this program will help to guide exploration programs in 2024 and beyond. Pending results, a 3D analysis will be carried out following the 2024 drill program to better define prospective targets at depth.
Gen Mining’s CEO Jamie Levy stated, “We are excited to follow up on the positive drill results from the summer 2021 program to better understand our land package and its potential to contain copper rich deposits.”
Source: https://genmining.com/