Minto Metals Corp. (TSX-V:MNTO) is pleased to report the progress from its 2022 exploration drilling program at the Minto Mine located within the Selkirk First Nation’s Territory in central Yukon, Canada.
The Company reports updated drill results from its recently completed 2022 exploration drilling program at Minto East. Drill hole 22-SDME-007 cut 5.53% Copper, 1.85 grams per tonne Gold, 20.37 g/t Silver over 8.66 metres in exploration drilling to depth below the current Minto East orebodies. This result and additional drill results represent a new mineralized lens below the Minto East orebodies (click to see NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report, Minto, Yukon, Canada with an effective date of March 31, 2021).
Highlights (Figure 1):
Hole 22-SDME-008
Hole 22-SDME-011
Hole 22-SDME-012
Hole 22-SDME-015
Hole 22-SDME-016
David Benson, Vice-President Exploration commented, “We are excited with this new discovery. It has the potential to add new resources for the company and highlights the real exploration potential that exists at the Minto mine site. This new mineralized zone occurs approximately 60 m beneath the Minto East 152 lens, an area that previously had not been drill-tested despite supporting geophysical evidence suggesting additional mineralization could be present. We see numerous additional opportunities as we have demonstrated here beneath the current resource from supporting geological and geophysical interpretations to replicate the success at Minto East in future exploration drilling campaigns. We also see opportunities to optimize drilling efficiency by simply extending resource development drilling into prioritized target areas.”
Assay and Drillhole Analysis
At December 31, 2022 Minto had completed 53 holes for 28,438 metres (Figure 1). Previous results for 2022 were reported in press releases dated April 28, 2022, October 20, 2022 and February 2, 2023. Drilling was conducted under the conditions and authorizations of Quartz Mining Land Use Permit# LQ00565 issued by the Department of Energy Mines and Resources, Yukon Government (Figure 2). Results released today are from ten drill holes totalling 4,845.5 m (see Table 1 for Drill hole information and Table 2 for Assay results).
Results reported today (Table 2 and Figures 3 and 4) were drilled as part of collaborative drilling between the Mine Operations and Exploration departments at Minto. Mine Operations drilling aimed to increase the confidence level in Minto East lenses 151 & 152. Exploration drilling aimed to explore the area approximately 100 m below Minto East lens 152; an area with no historical drilling. Results from the Mine Operations infill drilling are not reported in these results as they do not constitute exploration or a new discovery. All the drill holes were collared from a common drill setup and drilled in a clockwise, fan-approach. All drill holes intersected typical Minto-style, stacked, lensoidal mineralization of varying thickness and sulphide content. Mineralized host rocks (quartzo-feldspathic migmatite and gneiss) and sulphide speciation (bornite and chalcopyrite) are consistent in all holes reported with a direct correlation between sulphide content, speciation and Cu grade.
The new lens, initially termed 150 Deep, exhibits continuity (Figure 3) across dimensions of 60 m x 75 m with drill-indicated thicknesses greater than 5 m. The exploration target area for 150 Deep is approximately 120 m x 180 m. Although not a primary target, all but one hole (22-SDME-007) intersected the apparent continuation of Minto East Lens 155 (Figure 4).
Outlook
Minto completed 28,438 m from 53 drill holes of Exploration drilling in 2022. The Company is awaiting the final assay results from the assay lab and subsequent QA/QC reports for the remainder of the drilling. These are expected and will be reported later in Q1 2023. The Company has received preliminary data and interpretations regarding data clustering analyses and structural mapping from ALS Goldspot Discoveries (“Goldspot”). Minto expects preliminary machine-learning generated prospectivity mapping along with prioritized drill targets from Goldspot before Q2 2023.
Table 1. Drill hole location information for the 2022 drilling is reported in this press release.
Note: Co-ordinate system: UTM NAD83 Zone 8N |
Table 2. Assay results reported in this press release.
Notes: |
True width is estimated to be 75 to 95% of drilled width. |
Drill composites include dilution of up to 2 metres at grades less than 0.05% Cu. |
g/t = grams per tonne. |
Figure 1. Minto Mine Complex Plan View Map with highlighted Drilling results in this Release.
Figure 2. Regional Map of Minto Metals Corp. Projects. All Exploration activity reported herein are from the Minto Mine Property and authorized under Quartz Mining Land Use Permit LQ00565
Figure 3. Longitudinal section for the 150 Deep Lens. The oval salmon colored area represents the potential extents or target area for the 150 Deep lens projected to surface. Red circles represent the pierce points of each individual drill hole where it intersects the plane of the proposed lens. This lens sits approximately 400 m below surface so will not impact surface infrastructure.
Figure 4. Vertical cross-section looking southwest at the Minto East orebodies depicting the drill hole traces from recent drilling in this news release. Individual mineralized shapes are represented by a differing colour scheme. The 150 Deep lens is modeled as the green outline. Potential extension of the 155 lens represented by the dashed lines.
Qualified Person
The technical contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by David Benson, P.Geo. Vice President of Exploration of Minto Metals and Qualified Person as defined by Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Benson has reviewed the sampling and QA/QC procedures and results thereof as verification of the sampling data disclosed above and approved the information contained in this news release.
Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of duplicate, blank and certified reference materials (CRM), making up 17% of the sampling stream. Drill core samples were sawn in half, labelled, placed in sealed, securitized bags and shipped directly to Bureau Veritas preparation laboratory in Whitehorse, Yukon. All geochemical analyses were performed by Bureau Veritas in Vancouver, British Columbia. Individual samples are crushed to 70% passing 10 mesh. Copper and silver analysis were performed by aqua regia digestion with an ICP-ES finish. Gold was analyzed by igniting a 30 g sample followed by an aqua regia digestion with an AAS finish.
About Minto Metals Corp.
Minto operates the producing Minto mine located within the traditional territory of the Selkirk First Nation in the Minto Copper Belt of the Yukon. The Minto mine has been in operation since 2007 with underground mining commencing in 2014. Since 2007, approximately 500Mlbs of copper have been produced from the Minto mine. The current mine operations are based on underground mining, a process plant to produce high-grade copper, gold, and silver concentrate, and all supporting infrastructure associated with a remote location in Yukon. The Minto property is located west of the Yukon River, about 20 km WNW of Minto Landing, the latter on the east side of the river, and approximately 250 road-km north of the City of Whitehorse, the capital city of Yukon.
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