Clean Air Metals Inc (TSX-V:AIR, OTCQB:CLRMF). announced new assay results from its 2021 drill campaign at the Escape and Current PGE copper-nickel deposits at the company's flagship high-grade Thunder Bay North project in Ontario.
In a statement, the Thunder Bay, Ontario-based company said drilling operations will resume on January 6, 2022.
The firm shared new assays from the Escape South high grade zone that included Hole ELR21-083A, which intersected 46 meters (m) grading 19.6 grams per tonne (g/t) palladium equivalency (PtEq), composed of 3.03 g/t platinum (Pt), 3.94 g/t palladium (Pd), 1.33% copper (Cu) and 0.51% nickel (Ni) from 399.0-445.0m downhole, including 31.0m grading 25.0 g/t PtEq composed of 3.90 g/t Pt, 5.10g/t Pd, 1.70% Cu and 0.63% Ni from 405.0-436.0m downhole.
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The company said the Escape Deposit underwent 37,000m of expansion drilling in 2021, which is expected to add materially to the maiden indicated resource of 849,481 ounces PtEq (6.16 g/t PtEq in 4.28 million tonnes) reported in January last year. The Current Deposit 2.5 kilometers (km) to the east has a well-defined indicated mineral resource of 2,233,575 PtEq ounces (5.79 g/t PtEq in 11.99 million tonnes).
On December 1, 2021, Clean Air Metals reported a robust mine plan and cashflow model as part of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Current and Escape deposits at its Thunder Bay North project. The technical report is expected to be filed on SEDAR by January 14, 2022, said the firm.
In a statement, Clean Air Metals CEO Abraham Drost said: "Step-out drilling on the margins of the Escape South High Grade Zone (HGZ) continues to deliver impressive assay results. Under the results of the recent PEA press release, the Escape South High Grade Zone (HGZ) (>5g/t Pt+Pd) is identified as a high value potential mining area at the base of the Escape Deposit in years 5 and 6 of the mine plan.”
He noted that there is 37,000m of previously reported drilling results from the Escape Deposit in 2021 which have not yet been applied to the mineral resource for the Thunder Bay North project. “Assay results to date, along with the 2,000m of core in the lab still awaiting assay, suggest good continuity of mineralization between sections along the 900m trend of mineralization between the Escape South High Grade Zone and Steepledge South Zone,” he added.
Meanwhile, the firm said the Lower Current and Bridge Zones of the upper Current Deposit achieved a 90% conversion rate from indicated to potentially minable mineral resource for years one-to-four within the recently disclosed PEA mine plan. “An additional 10,000m of infill drilling in the lower Current Deposit is planned,” said Drost.
The firm said “up to 16,000m of drilling” is planned to start in mid-January 2022 on "frozen muskeg to follow up on certain discrete geophysical anomalies”. These may represent the occurrence of low resistivity, high conductivity massive sulphide material at the base of the Escape and Current deposits within the Escape Lake Fault Zone corridor, said the company.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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