Terrax: Drilling Gold in the Cold
By Resources Wire | Jay Currie April 2015 (National Post) --
To drill in -40 C absolute temperatures - no wind chill - you have to have a good reason.
For TerraX Minerals (V.TXR) that good reason is that its Northwest Territories property
For TerraX Minerals (V.TXR) that good reason is that its Northwest Territories property
just north of Yellowknife has sections which can be drilled more easily in winter, such as
through the ice to collar into lake bottoms. TerraX CEO Joe Campbell has extensive
through the ice to collar into lake bottoms. TerraX CEO Joe Campbell has extensive
experience to working in the Canadian North, where the cold is just part of the job.
Just to the east in Nunavut, Joe managed the Meliadine gold project near Rankin Inlet from
the initial discovery through to pre-feasibilty. In 2007, Joe introduced Melaidine project to
Agnico Eagle, who eventually acquired the project from Comaplex in a $650 million all-share
transaction in 2010.
transaction in 2010.
Announcing the results from three holes at its Yellowknife City gold project, Campbell stated,
"The high grade intercepts reported today continue to raise our confidence in the continuity
in the mineralized structure at Crestaurum. Receipt of assays from the other Crestaurum drill
holes that have tested this structure will further expand the mineralized zones for incorporation
in an initial resource estimate later this year, as well as our knowledge of the controls to high
grade shoots identified to date."
The core from these holes had visible gold and quartz veining and returned assay values
including 8.00 m @ 6.83 g/t Au, inclusive of 2.04 m @ 23.89 g/t Au, in hole TCR15-005,
and 15.50 m @ 2.89 g/t Au, inclusive of 2.94 m @ 13.28 g/t Au, in hole TCR15-006 within
80 metres of surface.
These holes also intercepted a secondary "hanging wall" zone of mineralization as well
(1.70 m @ 3.92 g/t Au and 0.83 m @ 5.96 g/t Au respectively). These holes were drilled
"on section" 100 m up dip from previous drilling, dramatically extending the mineralized
zone in that section of the structure.
The work being done on the Yellowknife City Gold project is taking advantage of prior drilling
conducted by the original owner, the past producing Giant Mine, in the 1980's as part of their
mine expansion plan.
"The zone we are currently drilling, Crestaurum, has 187 drill holes in it, all of which intercepted
gold mineralization near surface.
gold mineralization near surface.
We have the drill core from half of this drilling that we have been able to re-log and re-assay,
enabling us to fast track a resource estimate by "filling in the blanks" with the holes we are
drilling this year."
enabling us to fast track a resource estimate by "filling in the blanks" with the holes we are
drilling this year."
For the resource estimate, TerraX drilling in 2014 focused on verifying the historic drill
holes for which they didn't have the core in order to be able to bring the results reported
in the drill logs into compliance with the NI 43-101 rules. To do that, TerraX picked twelve
holes that statistically represented the entire database and "twinned" them. The results
were within acceptable tolerances of what was reported in the logs.
"Being able to use this data really jump starts the resource estimation process" explained
Campbell.
A little further to the northeast, TerraX has a second drill rig operating at what is possibly
its most significant target, the Barney Shear, a mineralized structure that has been traced
over at least 4.5 km on Terrax's property and is the same structure that hosted the past
producing high grade Giant and Con Minesto the south.
Drilling is being conducted from the surface of a nearby lake to make it easier to access the
zones TerraX wants to test this year.
"This is a different zone where a 400 m section of the Barney Shear was drilled in the 90's
and we were able to recover all of the previously drilled core. Our drilling last year included
a drill intercept of 22.42 m @ 6.45 g/t Au, inclusive of 5.16 m @ 18.40 g/t Au on this structure.
Now we are drilling to expand the zone down dip and along strike and build an initial resource
estimate for this section of the Barney Shear as well.
estimate for this section of the Barney Shear as well.
Beginning on January 19(, )at Crestaurum we've drilled 29 holes with a single drill.
We brought a second drill rig on in early March in order to make sure we completed the holes
we wanted to drill from the lake before spring break-up and the ice gets too thin to allow us
to operate.
We planned to drill just 5,000 metres this winter but, with the availability of the second drill,
we were able to add more holes to the program. We plan to be back drilling our shore based
targets again in the summer after the ground firms up."
The mining environment in the NWT is very supportive. "The territorial government now has
the mineral rights. They have started programs to help exploration. Plus they are very helpful
with their recent improvements to infrastructure." said Campbell.
with their recent improvements to infrastructure." said Campbell.
He also remarked that TerraX was one of the few "non-mine" exploration drill programs
underway this winter in the territory. "Most of the drilling which is being done is being done
at existing mines."
The citizens of Yellowknife have been active participants in the TerraX program, with several
local investors having participated in private placements and being very supportive.
Which does not change the bigger exploration picture.
Which does not change the bigger exploration picture.
"The capital markets continue to be difficult. Lots of companies have just given up. We are
able to stay staying active as we are confident that we can continue to raise money with a
project this attractive. The people who understand the industry and are serious about gold
are still there."
TerraX was invited to present at PDAC, resulting in considerable traffic at the TerraX booth
and raising TerraX's profile with the investment community in Toronto, with a number
of analysts now starting to follow TerraX and call regularly for updates. "PDAC went very
of analysts now starting to follow TerraX and call regularly for updates. "PDAC went very
well for us" states Campbell.
At time of writing TerraX was trading at $.38 and had a market cap of $20.84 million.
Quelle: nationalpost.com
Quelle: terraxminerals.com
Quote:
TerraX Minerals: Hochgradige Bohrerfolge auf Yellowknife in Kanada halten an
Der kanadische Junior-Explorer TerraX Minerals (TSX-V:TXR), welcher sich auf die Erkundung des goldreichenYellowknife Bezirks in den Northwest Territories fokussiert (16+ Mio. high-grade Goldunzen-Produktion in der Historie!), verkündete Anfang des Monats weitere ansehnliche Bohrresultate (siehe Highlights unten).
Aktuell sind noch mehr als 3.650 Bohrmeter von der Shear 20/Crestaurum und Barney Shear Zone ausstehend und demnach können wir mit weiteren guten News in den nächsten Wochen rechnen..
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