Boyd, Roosen, Quartermain: It takes grit, invention, luck to make the big time
Mining industry legends discuss the backstories on their multibillion-dollar successes.
After adding the Kilgore project in Idaho to its portfolio in April 2020, Excellon Resources has now increased the size of this property by 28%, adding 14.8 sq. km. The expansion follows aerial surveys completed over Kilgore in August, with additional remote sensing work, which produced results suggestive of alteration associated with target epithermal gold systems.
Based on the survey results, the company then completed prospecting at Kilgore. When the resulting data was combined with information from core relogging, geochemical modelling and structural interpretation, the Excellon team identified new prospects both within and next to the Kilgore grounds.
“Our initial field season has confirmed our belief in the multiple growth opportunities on the Kilgore Property, both within and beyond the known mineral resource,” Ben Pullinger, senior VP of geology and corporate development with Excellon, said in a release.
“We are currently moving through the permitting process for the next phase of exploration on the property and look forward to building on our learning since acquiring the property in April 2020.”
Excellon has filed an updated Plan of Operations with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in June – the agency is now revising the National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Assessment. The USFS that the revised EA and a Decision Notice is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2021. If this timeframe holds, further exploration drilling could start by mid-July of 2021.
The prospecting work focused on underexplored areas at Kilgore and led to the development of four new targets. Next year, Excellon plans to complete a geochemical and geophysical program a the GK prospect, 6 km northwest of the Kilgore deposit, as well as stream sediment sampling and geophysical surveys to define the controls of the mineralization and new drill targets.
The Kilgore deposit features an indicated resource of 44.6 million tonnes at 0.58 g/t gold, for a total of 825,000 gold oz., and an inferred resource of 9.4 million tonnes grading 0.45 g/t gold, for a further 136,000 gold oz. A 2019 preliminary economic assessment for the project outlined an operation producing an average of 112,500 oz. of gold annually at an initial capital cost of $81 million.
Excellon also holds the Platosa underground silver-lead-zinc mine in Durango State, Mexico and the Silver City exploration project in Saxony, Germany.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
