Low Development Costs and High Potential
Gold Terra Resource (TSX.V: YGT, FSE: TX0, WKN: A2P0BS) has begun drilling a second deep hole on the Con Mine Option property. It will be drilled from the GTCM23-055 hole completed last year and aims to intersect the high-grade Campbell Shear gold deposit again below the existing mine infrastructure.
A unique aspect of Gold Terra Resources’ current drilling plan is that while drilling is being done at great depths, the costs for these drillings are low because the first borehole will serve as a master hole for several further drillings. These will branch off from it and can therefore test other interesting areas without incurring extremely high drilling costs.
Although the drill targets of the Campbell Shear Zone are at depths of 1,900 to 2,200 meters, since an intact mine infrastructure with a functional shaft reaches down to 1,700 meters, the project is more comparable in terms of development costs to other properties that explore higher-lying targets at depths of 400 to 500 meters.
Investors should always consider this aspect, because despite depths of over 2,000 meters, what Gold Terra Resource plans to do at the Con Mine is far from being as costly as it might seem at first glance. On the contrary, many near-surface projects that are to be brought into production far outside existing infrastructure will become much more expensive due to the construction of roads and power lines.
The successful progress of the GTCM23-055 drill hole suggests that the high-grade Campbell Shear Zone will continue to be intersected by subsequent drillings. Whether the mineralization intersected is substantial enough to justify resuming mining operations remains to be seen in the future.
Low Development Costs and High Potential for Gold Terra Resource
However, it is already clear that should Gold Terra Resource be successful with its drillings, the subsequent mine development will be firstly cost-effective and secondly quite quick compared to other projects, as the company can draw on numerous facilities from the historic Con Mine that other mine developers must first laboriously and, above all, expensively construct.
With this enormous advantage, Gold Terra Resource is now proceeding to explore the zone about 200 meters below the existing mine infrastructure in more detail. With the GTCM23-055 drill hole last year, proof was already provided that the gold structure continues below the historic mine. Now, subsequent drillings must demonstrate that there is still enough gold in the ground to make resuming mining operations worthwhile.
Gold Terra Resource Chairman and CEO, Gerald Panneton, believes that this proof can be provided, as last year’s master drilling intersected a typical gold intersection of 12.73 g/t gold over a length of 1.7 meters. A first lateral wedge targeting the Campbell Shear Zone about 75 meters north of the first intersection has already been drilled in recent weeks. However, the drilling company made an error in executing the work on another wedge, causing the drill hole to be abandoned.
A Confirmation of the Fundamental Idea is Still Possible
Although this error resulted in the loss of the branching drill hole and the time needed for drilling, Gold Terra’s basic idea that the Campbell Shear Zone continues below the historic mine was not called into question by this error.
In response to the error, it was decided to start a second, deeper drill hole about 600 meters below the Robertson Shaft, approximately 1,900 meters below the surface. This is being done with the aim of investigating a larger area for gold mineralization in the CS.
If all goes according to plan, the second deep drill hole will intersect the Campbell Shear an estimated 600 meters below the underground mine workings. For Gold Terra Resource, this approach has the advantage of being able to investigate a larger area by adding several wedges and intersections of the Campbell Shear to the previous drilling plan.
