Visible gold in diamond drill core from Wallbridge’s Fenelon gold project in Quebec. Source: Wallbridge Mining Co. Ltd.
Wallbridge Mining Co. Ltd. [WM-TSX; WC7-FWB] shares were active again Thursday February 21 after the company said drilling has identified a new gold zone at its 100%-owned Fenelon Gold property in Quebec.
“The new zone intersected in hole FA-18-051 is located several hundred metres away from the main deposit and has very similar characteristics to the existing deposit,” said Wallbridge President and CEO Marz Korde.
“The discovery of this broad gold mineralized system in a so far unknown intrusion at depth in hole FA-18-051 is very exciting,” added Attila Pentek, Vice-President, Exploration at Wallbridge. “This new mineralized system is made up of a stockwork of gold-bearing veins surrounding more focused higher-grade shear zones which are similar to the ones found in the main deposit,” he said.
Drill hole FA-18-051 returned 1.02 g/t gold over 24.59 metres, including 3.13 g/t gold over 4.78 metres, which includes an interval containing visible gold that assayed 9.90 g/t gold over 0.54 metres and 12.70 g/t gold over 2.71 metres included within a wider interval of 3.93 g/t gold over 9.96 metres. Both are hosted within an approximately 200-metre wide, so far unknown package of favourable mafic-ultramafic rocks with broad low-grade gold mineralization throughout.
Pentek went on to say that this discovery lines up well with a strong break in the airborne magnetic signatures, indicating a significant northwest-southeast trending structure. “This structure also appears to control other, so far isolated, historic gold intersections and represents an entirely new exploration target for our 2019 drill program,” he said.
Wallbridge shares advanced on the news, rising 3.70% or $0.01 to 28 cents on volume of 3.22 million. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $0.055 and 35 cents.
Wallbridge has said it is establishing a pipeline of projects that will support sustainable production and revenue as well as organic growth through exploration and scalability.
Its portfolio includes the Fenelon Gold property, which covers 1,052 hectares and is located in northwestern Quebec, about 75 km northwest of Matagami. The project is proximal to the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone, which hosts the Detour Gold Mine in Ontario and Balmoral Resources Ltd.’s [BAR-TSX, BALMF-OTC] gold deposits at Martiniere.
The Fenelon property hosts the Discovery Zone gold deposit and surrounding 4-km strike length of gold-hosting secondary splay of the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone.
Since acquiring the property in late 2016, Wallbridge has completed an updated resource estimate and a positive pre-feasibility study (PFS) on the existing gold resource, which consists of 38,000 ounces in the measured and indicated category, plus a further 1,900 ounces of inferred material.
The PFS estimates a pre-tax net cash flow of $6.62 million and project pre-tax internal rate of return of 92% for the initial approximate 18-month mine life for the known reserves located above a depth of 100 metres and located within close proximity to the existing ramp.
Results of the 2017 drilling, along with geological and structural modelling combined with a reinterpretation of the deposit have led to an expanded exploration target of an additional 70,000-120,000 ounces of gold, the company has said. This target is in addition to the 2016 resource estimate.
On Thursday, the company said the 2018 underground and surface drill programs were completed before the holidays and drill rigs were de-mobilized. Assay results of several drill holes are still pending and will be reported as they are received in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, the 2019 drill program (50,000-75,000 metres planned) has commenced last week with one underground drill rig with one surface drill rig to follow at the end of the month.
The 2019 underground resource drilling will initially be carried out from the recently established 5130 level (125 metres depth) and will target the main high-grade shoots down plunge to a depth of 200 metres.