El Salvador lawmakers overturn mining ban in win for president
The legislation will grant the Salvadoran government sole authority over mining activities within the country's land and maritime territory.
Wallbridge Mining Company (TSX: WM) has reported positive assay results from ongoing resource drilling at its flagship Fenelon gold project, further expanding the lateral footprint of the deposit beyond its initial 2021 mineral resource estimate (MRE).
Fenelon is located 80 km east of Agnico Eagle’s Detour Lake gold mine at the centre of Wallbridge’s land package, which covers roughly 910 km2 of the Detour-Fenelon gold trend in northwestern Quebec. Fenelon’s initial resource estimation completed in 2021 contained 36 million indicated tonnes grading 1.84 g/t gold for 2.1 million contained oz., plus 29 million inferred tonnes at 1.57 g/t for 1.5 million contained oz.
“Today’s results add new gold mineralization along the eastern and western margins of the 2021 MRE. We are particularly pleased with the gold endowment in the eastern part of the deposit, where the host diorite is pervasively mineralized and we have encountered high-quality gold zones that remain entirely open toward the southeast,” Marz Kord, Wallbridge’s president and CEO, commented.
The western and eastern extensions of mineralization are exemplified by drill holes FA-22-401 (3.01 g/t gold over 17.95 metres) in the west and FA-22-420A (25.14 g/t gold over 3.27 metres) in the east, both of which intersected gold mineralization outside the 2021 MRE at approximately 795 to 865 metres below the surface. Furthermore, the areas directly surrounding these intercepts remain untested with further room to expand the mineralization.
The new drill results further demonstrated the expansion potential of the Fenelon gold deposit, where Wallbridge has been extending the near-surface mineralization at Area 51 and recently confirmed its continuity at depth by establishing underground access.
“Overall, the drilling at Fenelon this year has continued to prove extensions of new gold zones in multiple directions, which will help strengthen the project by delivering a more robust orebody with the flexibility to develop an optimal mine design,” Kord added.
Wallbridge geologists and technical staff envision that the next mineral resource estimate could point to a primarily bulk-mineable underground resource at Fenelon, with possible smaller open pits on shallow mineralized zones such as at Gabbro and Area 51.
