Hedge funds slash bullish wagers on gold over Trump election win
The precious metal has fallen about 8% from a record high on Oct. 31, with losses accelerating after Trump’s election victory last week.
Quebec-focused Azimut Exploration is starting off 2021 with a 15,000-metre drill program at its Elmer property, 285 km north of Matagami in Quebec’s James Bay region.
The main goal of the 60-hole drill program is to extend the Patwon gold zone at Elmer along strike and at depth, with 30 holes totalling 10,000 metres. Another 30 holes totalling 5,000 metres is planned to test new targets.
Drilling will begin in February
Discovered in November 2019, the Patwon zone currently extends for 500 metres, to a depth of 250 metres and has a true width of 80 metres. The new drill program will aim to expand its strike length to 800 metres and its depth to 350 metres.
Recent drill highlights from Patwon include 9.8 metres of 5.86 g/t gold starting at 95.3 metres; and 48.1 metres of 1.38 g/t gold from 230.8 metres.
Based on the results of drilling so far (39 mineralized holes drilled on 50-metre centres), the Patwon zone is wide, geometrically simple and consistent. Azimut says there may be potential for open pit mining initially, with the intersection of high-grade intervals in most holes suggesting potential for underground mining. The steeply dipping orogenic deposit is open along strike and at depth.
The other 30 holes in the program will test new targets identified in an 8-km by 3-km corridor at Elmer that includes Patwon. Targets were generated based on data collected from ground geophysics, till sampling and prospecting work conducted in 2020 and early 2021, as well as Azimut’s advanced geochemical targeting system AZtechMine.
Drilling will begin in February.
Azimut has so far completed 62 holes totalling more than 11,500 metres at the 271-sq.-km Elmer property.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
