Belmont Resources Inc (TSX-V:BEA) has told investors that results from the latest batch of drill assays at its Lone Star joint venture (JV) with Marquee Resources in northeastern Washington State continue to intersect wide zones of up to 60 metres (m) of significant copper mineralization.
In an update on exploration activities at Lone Star, the company said the assays further extend the mineralization envelope as the wide zones of mineralization are interpreted to be related to a sub-vertical feeder dyke that has been the conduit for upwelling magmas during rhyolite dome emplacement and mineralization.
Belmont reminded shareholders that Marquee has an option to earn up to an 80% interest in the Lone Star property by completing a preliminary economic assessment study.
READ: Belmont announces completion of first drill program at Come By Chance project in southern British Columbia
“33 of the original 42 proposed holes have been completed, and six additional infill holes in the pit itself have now been added to help firm up the new resource calculation and provide further support for a potential initial open-pit mining scenario,” Belmont president and CEO George Sookochoff said in a statement. “Drilling continues 24/7 and we remain on schedule for producing a new 43-101 resource estimate in 1H 2022.”
The objective of the drill program is to:
- Validate the historical 252 drill hole database and resource model;
- Test for extensions of the historical resource both laterally and at depth;
- Deliver a 43-101/JORC compliant mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment/scoping study.
Additionally, Belmont said Mining Plus Pty Ltd has begun resource modelling studies as it pushes towards delivering a 43-101/2022 JORC-compliant resource in the first half of 2022.
The company noted that the Lone Star deposit is interpreted to have elements of structural and stratigraphic control with an overprinting porphyry copper system. Structurally stacked 'tectonic' lenses of east-dipping, closely spaced, overlapping en echelon zones of VMS-style massive sulphide have been structurally emplaced during thrusting over the basal serpentinite unit.
At least eight individual zones have been interpreted and these zones range from 1-18m thick. Porphyry and hydrothermal fluids utilised the pre-existing structural architecture to deposit copper-gold mineralisation after the earlier thrusting event.
Structurally controlled epithermal gold mineralisation, discordant with early base metal mineralisation, has also been identified hosted in veins, shear veins and breccia zones and is interpreted to have been deposited syn-porphyry emplacement.
It said at least three separate rhyolite sills are fed by sub-vertical, structurally controlled, feeder dykes/zones. The mineralised sub-vertical dykes/zones are estimated to be around 20-40m wide, extend laterally for tens to hundreds of metres and are vertically extensive.
Belmont said identification of the mineralised dykes opens up the possibility of defining significant additional mineralisation outside the flat-lying, structurally remobilised base metal mineralisation that has been historically identified.
Belmont Resources is engaged in the business of acquiring and re-developing past-producing copper-gold-silver mines in southern British Columbia and northern Washington State. This region is considered to have the highest concentration of mineralization and past-producing mines in western North America.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com