JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed diversified miner Ivanhoe Mines on Tuesday reported that it has completed 75 drilling holes, totalling about 14 900 m of its planned 20 000 m underground diamond drilling programme at the Kipushi project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The company would now focus its drilling programme on exploration for new zones of mineralisation below the historical indicated resources.

“Our underground drilling programme at Kipushi is continuing to deliver exceptionally high-grade intercepts in several target areas, while leading to an improved understanding of geology and structural controls on the mineralisation," Ivanhoe Mines executive chairperson Robert Friedland said.

He added that the recent intercept in the programme’s hole KPU072 highlighted the potential to discover new zones of high-grade zinc and copper mineralisation. “We're looking forward to drill-testing these targets as our drilling programme continues," he noted.

Drilling at depth to the south of the project’s Big Zinc zone revealed a new intersection of massive sulphide mineralisation containing sphalerite (zinc), chalcopyrite (copper) and pyrite.

KPU072 was collared from section 17 on the 1 272 m level hanging-wall drift and drilled at -64˚ to 190˚ to test along the southerly plunge of the Big Zinc. The hole encountered Big Zinc mineralisation until a down-hole depth of 286 m, when it passed into dolomites of the middle Kakontwe.

The hole then entered a new zone of mineralisation at a down-hole depth of 417.32 m to 477.17 m, about 140 m below the base of historical indicated resources.

Two holes have recently been drilled into the area where the Série Récurrente zone intersects the Kipushi Fault zone, historically referred to as the Nord Riche (North Rich) zone. Ivanhoe's KPU073 and KPU074 holes targeted down-plunge extensions of this zone below the level of historical mining. Zones of disseminated and massive sulphides were intersected in both holes, and assay results were pending.

Assays for holes 1 through 64 had been released, while assays for holes 65 through 75 were pending. Two diamond-drill rigs continued to complete exploration and confirmatory drilling of the Big Zinc, Nord Riche and Série Récurrente zones from the hanging-wall drill drift on the 1 272 m level.