O3 Mining Inc (CVE:OIII) (OTCMKTS:OIIIF) unveiled plans on Tuesday to expand the drilling program at its Malartic and Alpha properties, two potential production sites, in Val-d'Or, Québec, in a bid to discover and convert new gold resources.
The company aims to sink 250,000 metres (m) during this year and next at the two properties, on top of the 86,000m undertaken in 2019 and 2020.
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It has a budget of C$49.3 million for 2021/2, with 125,000m targeted for Malartic and 125,000m for Alpha.
“The exploration success to date, as well as a recently completed C$35.0 million bought deal financing, which brought its total cash and investments to C$145.9 million, gives O3 Mining the confidence to expand the drilling program as it executes its triple exploration strategy to convert, expand and discover resource through the second-largest drilling program in Québec behind its sister company Osisko Mining,” the explorer said in a statement.
O3's properties in Quebec already host measured and indicated (M&I) resources of 2.4 million ounces of gold at a grade of 1.22 grams per ton (g/t), while there are 1.5 million ounces of the yellow metal at 2.27 g/t gold in inferred.
At the Marban project on the Malartic property, infill drilling will be carried out to upgrade the inferred resources ahead of a pre-feasibility study earmarked for 2022, including at the Norlartic–Kierens, North-North, North Shear, Marban and the Gold Hawk deposits.
The company will also continue with step-out drilling and testing new areas within five kilometres of the proposed plant site to identify new resources that can be brought within the mine plan.
Elsewhere, O3 Mining aims to continue to expand the resource at the Orenada-Bulldog and Akasaba sectors at Alpha, where it has an option on the nearby Aurbel mill.
At Alpha, the company also aims to continue to discover new mineralized zones at the Simkar and Omega sectors and test targets generated and verified using artificial intelligence (AI) by Mira Geoscience, incorporating drilling and mapping databases and samples, among others.
Also in today's statement, O3 said Jose Vizquerra, President and CEO of the company, will present at the BMO Global Metals & Mining Conference on March 3 at 4pm ET, as part of the Osisko Group Panel alongside Osisko Development, Osisko Mining, and Osisko Metals, and will be available for one-on-one meetings throughout the conference.
Shares nudged up 2% in Toronto to C$2.55 each.
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