Results of test drilling have proven to be better than hoped.
Northisle Copper and Gold Inc. has announced a ‘maiden’ mineral resource on its Red Dog copper gold deposit, on the north side of Holberg Inlet, supports the company’s plan to combine Red Dog and Hushamu into a single project.
“A ‘maiden’ resource is a fancy way of saying the initial resource estimate,” Jack McClintock, Northisle’s President and CEO explained.
“We are very pleased that the initial estimate resource estimate for the Red Dog deposit has exceeded our expectations and will now complete the PEA incorporating both Red Dog and Hushamu,” said McClintock.
“With the new, more rigourous, ways of calculating resources, often the grades are lower than historical estimate. Luckily for us, the historical resource was done very well and is in line with the new one,” McClintock said.
“I am now very hopeful that the PEA will have a positive outcome and show the project well worthwhile to advance to a full feasibility study,” McClintock said.
“We are excited by the potential impact the addition of Red Dog will have on the overall project, especially as commodity prices continue to recover.”
Red Dog is located 10 kilometres by road from the Hushamu deposit.
In addition to its close proximity, Red Dog’s grade is 50 per cent higher than Hushamu’s, which may benefit the economics by providing higher-grade feed during the initial two years of a potential mine plan.
A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) is currently under way to evaluate the strength of the combined project. A PEA looks at the economics and how much work has to get done to get deposits into production. “The PEA will take until the end of March next year to complete,” he said.
The Red Dog Resource estimate is based on 38 drill holes totalling 6,382 metres. The majority of the holes used in the resource calculation were drilled by Utah Mines Ltd in 1980 to 1982 and Moraga and Crew Resources in 1989 to 1991.
Over the past year, Vancouver – based Northisle compiled the historical drill results, verified drill locations and re-drilled four of the historical holes – two from the 1980s drill programs and two from the 1989 to 1991 drill programs. Results from the verification drilling compared well with the historical results.
A full technical report co-authored by Brian Game and Phil Burt will be filed on SEDAR within the next 45 days.
The North Island Copper-Gold Project is situated approximately 15-40 kilometres southwest of Port Hardy and contains the Hushamu and Red Dog deposits and five other partially explored copper-gold porphyry occurrences. The project is 100 per cent owned by Northisle.
North Isle estimates its mine would employ between 500 and 600 people.
