VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – British Columbia-based copper producer Copper Mountain Mining has completed its summer drilling programme at its eponymous Copper Mountain mine and started drilling at the new Ingerbelle target, both located near Princeton in the province’s south.
The programme was intended to expand resources on the western side of the Pit 2 area and also to carry out infill drilling on the Saddle area to upgrade resources to assist with longer term mine planning.
Copper Mountain said on Monday that a deep drilling programme was also completed at the eastern end of Pit 2 to test continuity of the high-grade material at depth. A total of 8 900 m of diamond drilling was completed in thirty-two drill holes.
The New Ingerbelle target is located about 1 km west of the current Superpit. The Ingerbelle deposit was mined by Newmont Mines from 1966 to 1981. A 5 000 m Phase 1 diamond drill programme was recently started on the New Ingerbelle deposit to verify historical drilling, while also testing both lateral and depth potential of the resource, the company advised.
The existing resource is believed to include 125-million inferred tonnes grading 0.31% copper (using a 0.2% cutoff) containing a further one-billion pounds of copper equivalent. Mining this deposit could add another decade to the current Copper Mountain mine life.