Arizona Gold & Silver Inc (TSX-V:AZS, OTCQB:AZASF) announced it has contracted a second core drill for its Philadelphia Gold-Silver Property in Arizona to test the high-grade zone at the Rising Fawn target area, where access limitations have previously hindered drilling with conventional rigs.
The core drill is specially designed to drill horizontal and shallow-angle holes, the company said in a statement.
It will be used to obtain critical subsurface data beneath a high cliff face of mineralized material. Conventional drill rigs are unable to access this zone, as it lies below a ridge that is difficult to reach from the top.
Drilling is expected to begin this week, Arizona Gold & Silver said.
Earlier this year, Arizona Gold & Silver reported promising channel sampling results from a historic 51.8-meter-long drift at the Rising Fawn target. The results included an interval of 30.5 meters grading 2.33 g/t gold and 15.27 g/t silver, followed by 18.28 meters grading 0.59 g/t gold and 3.74 g/t silver. In total, 48.78 meters within the drift graded 1.68 g/t gold and 10.95 g/t silver. The company noted that the high-grade zones are steeply dipping, making them unsuitable for traditional vertical drilling. A new core drill will target these structures with horizontal and shallow-angle holes, including 12 planned drill holes to test the area down-dip from the drift.
A nearby adit returned high grades, with 1.5 meters grading 20.4 g/t gold and 20.5 g/t silver, and this area will also be drilled.
“By drilling this high-grade portion of the system, we aim to gather the necessary data for resource modeling and gain a better understanding of the detailed distribution of grade within the overall mineralized zone at Rising Fawn,” said Greg Hahn, vice president exploration.
In addition to the drilling at Rising Fawn, the company is also progressing with drilling at its Red Hills target. Drilling is targeting the hydrothermally altered Red Hills flow dome.
Initial results from the first hole confirmed the geologic model derived from previous reverse circulation drilling and geophysical data, encountering strong clay alteration and quartz stockwork in both rhyolite and underlying granite.