Heritage Mining (CSE: HML, FSE: Y66, WKN: A3DTM6) can report encouraging progress and interesting gold extensions from its three gold projects located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Progress has been made on drilling at the Melba project, while new hits have been made at Contact Bay and Drayton Black Lake, allowing for an expansion of the known vein structure.
The next drilling campaign is currently being prepared at the Melba project. Heritage Mining has already submitted the necessary applications for diamond drilling to the responsible authorities. In preparation for this, the historical mine plans have been validated in recent weeks, as Heritage’s geologists had noticed possible discrepancies regarding the position of shafts and drill holes in comparison to the georeferenced maps and the company’s 3D model of the previous drilling program.
At the same time, work was carried out to improve the infrastructure. Several new access roads have been created and various possible locations have been identified and pre-selected for the planned core storage facility. A preserved historical winter drilling path is currently being improved and expanded so that the drilling equipment can be mobilized on it shortly. Heritage Mining plans to begin transporting the drilling equipment as soon as the winter road improvement is complete.
Expansion of Infrastructure and Verification of Historical Data through New Drilling
At various meetings with representatives of the local communities, the company was able to present its current plans in detail and at the same time further improve its relations with the residents of the region. Now, the focus is on the new drilling program, which is scheduled to begin later this year. A total of 26 diamond drill holes with a total length of approximately 1,780 meters are planned.
The task of the new drilling will be to confirm the historical highlights with up to 23.27 g/t gold over 4.5 meters and 6.59 g/t gold over 12.87 meters. The historical drilling results are particularly attractive not only because of their high gold content. Visible gold had been discovered in many drill cores. It is also significant for later gold production that the gold finds were made near the surface.
A bulk sample taken from the historical ore stockpile in 2012 averaged gold grades of 3.99 g/t. Heritage Mining therefore estimates that the stockpile could contain 230.90 ounces of gold with a total volume of 2,000 tonnes. The prospects for the near future are therefore quite attractive, because if Heritage Mining succeeds in confirming the high-grade historical results over the winter, the basis for a permanent, systematic further development of the project will be laid.
At Contact Bay, Heritage Mining Confirms a New Gold Mineralization below the Old Mine
At the Contact Bay Gold Project, Heritage Mining has discovered a new mineralization below the historical Rognon mine facilities with drill hole DDH RGN25-003. It contains 1.47 g/t gold over a length of 2.0 meters. Since the new gold find was encountered only 84 meters below the surface, this new mineralization – similar to the Melba project – can also be regarded as near-surface.
Heritage Mining was also successful with drill hole DDH RGN25-004. At a depth of 101 meters, it intersected 2.25 g/t gold over 2.0 meters. Within this section, the gold mineralization even increased to 4.31 g/t over a length of one meter. A second mineralization intersected the drill hole only a little later, because at a depth of 209 meters a 1.28 meter long section with 3.67 g/t gold was encountered. Within this zone, visible gold could be detected in the drill cores and the gold content increased to 7.56 g/t over a length of 55 centimeters.
Three Hits in one Go
A third find was made within this drill hole at a depth of 258.64 meters. Starting from this depth, 0.94 g/t gold was detected over 1.05 meters. There was also a more heavily mineralized zone within this mineralization. It extends over a length of 55 centimeters and has a gold content of 1.76 g/t. Heritage Mining was also successful with drill hole DDH RGN25-007. With it, 1.09 g/t gold was intersected over a length of three meters at a depth of 104 meters.
Heritage Mining was thus also able to report new gold finds on this old gold mine, which had been operated in the early 1900s. They justify the further exploration of the project and represent another great success. This is all the more remarkable as Heritage Mining had no historical drilling data available before the start of its own drilling. For this reason, considerable efforts have also been made on this project in recent weeks to create new access roads and make all parts of the project more accessible.
Structural New Gold Discovery also on Drayton Black Lake
Last but not least, there are also positive developments to report from the company’s flagship, the Drayton-Black-Lake project. Here, Heritage Mining succeeded in making a new hit approximately 185 meters northeast of the last borehole. It is believed to extend the previously identified mega-quartz vein structure. The results are so encouraging that, in conjunction with the pending geochemical results, they may point the way to a new, larger discovery.
Not all drill cores have yet been evaluated by the laboratory. However, the results from drill holes DDH25-016 and DDH25-017 that have already been received indicate a near-surface, low gold mineralization, which, however, extends over greater lengths. DDH25-016 contains 0.10 g/t gold over 8.0 meters starting from 88 meters, with the gold content peaking at 0.23 g/t gold over a length of 2.0 meters within this mineralization.
In drill hole DDH25-017, the mineralization begins at a depth of 72 meters. Here, 0.28 g/t gold was found over a length of one meter. Only four meters deeper begins a section that contains 0.90 g/t gold over one meter and at a depth of 82 meters follows a third mineralized zone that contains 0.45 g/t gold over a length of 2.0 meters.
Although the results of individual drillings and a wealth of soil samples are still pending, the work carried out on Drayton Black Lake can also be regarded as a success, because a new structural discovery was also made on this project. Heritage Mining is now faced with the interesting task of systematically developing this highly interesting area as well.
