Ximen Mining Corp (CVE:XIM) (FRA:1XMA) (OTCQB:XXMMF) has announced that diamond drilling is about to commence at its newly acquired Wild Horse Creek Gold property.
In conjunction with one of the property vendors, the Vancouver-based junior precious metals explorer said that a helicopter-supported drill program is about to start on one of the claims recently acquired at Wild Horse Creek, which is located 15 kilometres (km) northeast of Cranbrook in the Fort Steele Mining Division in southern British Columbia.
Drilling will follow up on previous drill results that returned high gold values, Ximen added.
READ: Ximen acquires the Wild Horse Creek property in the Kimberly gold trend
In 2016, drill hole LF16-01 was drilled to test a gold target on the Lone 4 claim that was defined by surface rock chip sampling. Surface grab sample results were reported with values ranging up to 8.0 grams per ton (g/t). Hole LF16-01 was drilled to test beneath the gold-bearing outcrops and intersected altered sedimentary rocks cut by quartz veinlets and breccia mineralized. with disseminated pyrite.
Historical assay reports indicate consistently elevated gold values between depths of 60 metres (m) and the end of the hole at 74.4m, essentially underneath the mineralized zone at surface. A drill intercept of 0.76 g/t gold over 14.4m was obtained. Included in this are 3m grading 2.48 g/t gold, with values ranging up to 3.26 g/t gold over 1m.
“A drill has been mobilized to site now and is being set up on the site where the 2016 hole was collared,” the company said in a statement. “The plan is to go back down the 2016 hole and extend it to further drill and define the boundary of the mineralized zone.”
The Wild Horse Creek property, which adjoins Ximen's Hughes Range claims, lies within the Kimberley gold trend, a zone that extends southwestward from the Rocky Mountains into the western part of the Purcell Mountains.
In 1864 gold was discovered in Wild Horse Creek and the 720 km long trail known as the Dewdney Trail was started to connect Hope with the gold mining community known as Fisherville on Wild Horse Creek. More than 10 million ounces of gold is estimated to have been recovered from the gold-bearing streams in the East Kootenay area and the locations of more than 50 gold showings have been recorded.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com