Artemis Gold’s Blackwater mine at final commissioning stage
Artemis now expects to feed first ore to the ball mill in the next few weeks and continues to target first gold pour before year end.
The results from a second set of assays from NorthWest Copper’s (TSXV: NWST; US-OTCQX: NWCCF) ongoing 2022 Kwanika drill program in north-central British Columbia highlights the discovery of additional very high-grade copper and gold mineralization within a previously undrilled shallow area of the deposit.
The company reported on Wednesday it had intersected several near-surface intervals of ‘chalcocite breccia’ mineralization with similar geology to last year’s 33.6% copper-equivalent (CuEq) over 9.4 metres in hole K-21-217. Like the first five drill results released in July, the latest four holes targeted expansion and delineation of near-surface high-grade zones in the southern part of the Kwanika Central Zone.
Kwanika is located about 140 km northwest of the town of Fort St. James in northern B.C.
The results highlight the presence of very high-grade late chalcocite-rich breccia exceeding 14% CuEq. The delineation of shallow copper-gold mineralization around the southern region of Kwanika Central Zone locally extends the footprint of mineralization and supports the presence of higher-grade areas outlined in the resource block model, the company reports.
Highlights from the recent set of assays include hole K-22-230, which struck 378.8 metres of 0.62% CuEq (0.37% copper, 0.33 grams gold per tonne, 1.2 grams silver per tonne) from 19.2 metres.
Hole K-22-232 returned 109.05 metres of 0.89% CuEq (0.62% copper, 0.33 grams gold per tonne, 3 grams silver per tonne) from 27 metres, including 1.45 metres of 14.52% CuEq (9.35% copper, 6.65 grams gold per tonne, 44.1 grams silver per tonne).
Hole K-22-233 returned 102.90 metres of 1% CuEq (0.8% copper, 0.26 grams gold per tonne, 1.9 grams silver per tonne) from 30 metres, including an intersection of 2 metres of 4.06% CuEq (3.41% copper, 0.83 grams gold per tonne, and 5.6 grams silver per tonne).
President and CEO Peter Bell welcomed the discovery as an exciting development. “While the new interval is narrower than last year’s hole, it is much closer to the surface and suggests the potential for multiple very high-grade zones within the deposit,” he said in a statement.
