Eagle Mountain Mining Limited has announced further assay results from its recent drilling program at the company’s 80 per cent owned Oracle Ridge Mine Project in Arizona, USA.
Assay results from selected zones within drill holes WT-20-06, WT-20-07, WT-20-09, WT-20-11 have been received and were reported in an announcement on 18 December 2020. Initial observations from hole WT-20-10 were also provided.
Notably, WT-20-06 lead to the discovery of quartz-breccia grading 6.67 per cent copper (Cu), 63.5 grams per tonne (g/t) silver (Ag) and 0.87 g/t of gold (Au) over 2.95 metres at 210 metres downhole.
The company advised that a wide zone of strong copper mineralisation near and within the Leatherwood granite intrusive has also been intersected in hole WT-20-10 (assays pending).
Eagle Mountain outlines that the potential for a deeper copper-rich system has been demonstrated by these breccias.
Other strong assay results received to-date include:
- 41 metres at 2.80 per cent Cu, 18.75g/t Ag and 0.61g/t Au from 285.59m (WT-20-11)
- 35 metres at 9.14 per cent Cu, 52.5g/t Ag and 0.69g/t Au from 275.23m (WT-20-11)
- 57 metres at 2.18 per cent Cu, 19.49g/t Ag and 0.89g/t Au from 245.43m (WT-20-06)
- Intersections in hole WT-20-06 are part of a 39m thick zone averaging >1 per cent Cu.
The company notes that these gold assay grades are three to four times higher above the resource model average.
“Having worked at the Twin Buttes copper skarn/porphyry deposit south of Tucson and understanding the nature of these types of deposits, I am extremely encouraged by discovering these breccia zones,” said Eagle Mountain Mining Managing Director, Charlie Bass.
“In most deposits, they often carry the best copper grades, but not necessarily the greatest tonnes, and then are followed by the skarns which are fed by these breccias and other structures. The porphyry feeder system is of lower grade but much greater tonnage that adds the multi-decade life of these mines. The skarns are limited to the thicknesses of the host limestones, which could be substantial, but the breccias can run deep.”
“There is obviously a lot more follow up drilling to chase these newly discovered zones, as well as expanding the mineralisation that lies near and within the Leatherwood granite intrusive,” Mr Bass said.
Eagle Mountain Mining CEO, Tim Mason, added that the company’s goal is to become a low-cost producer of copper and is therefore aiming to grow Eagle Mountain’s mineral resources, both within the existing mine and in close proximity to feed a potential future processing plant.
“To achieve this, we need to increase our base resource tonnage, but more importantly, build the higher-grade zones that will provide early payback of capital and underpin the life of the operation. We are still at an early stage of understanding the structural mineralisation controls at Oracle Ridge. The discovery of the high-grade breccia zones is significant as they not only contain high-grade copper, but also have potential to support a broader mineralised system. This discovery is a milestone for the company as the next step to become a low-cost copper producer.”
The drilling program has now been extended to at least March 2020.
The full announcement can be found online here.