JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Galileo Resources on Monday announced drilling results for its final eight drill holes – as part of a 26-hole diamond drilling programme – at the Star Zinc project, in Zambia, in which the company has an 85% interest.
Assay results received for the final eight diamond drill holes at depths downhole to 63 m include four holes showing medium- to high-grade zinc mineralisation, from 4.72% to 15.4% zinc.
These holes were mainly close to the southern periphery of the historic mineralised body.
The Star Zinc project is an historical small-scale openpit mine from which low-tonnage, high-grade willemite (a zinc silicate material) was extracted intermittently from the 1950s to the 1990s. The deposit is located about 18 km from Lusaka.
Based on the drill data, independent consulting geologists will develop a conceptual three-dimensional model and come up with a grade-tonnage estimate.
Galileo CEO Colin Bird commented that this final batch of results supports the company’s view that the project will be boosted by peripheral, at or near-surface mineralised karsts and zinc oxides.
At a cutoff grade of 3% zinc, this would potentially require little or no blasting, owing to the deposit being close to the surface.
“We expect, from this exercise and further study, to be able to direct the next exploration and drilling programme with a view to further increasing the size of the deposit and to generate a compliant maiden resource estimate.
“To complement this, we are currently evaluating the results from a collection of physical core rock property measurements in relation to potential geophysical exploration methods in order to assess suitability and determination of the most optimal exploration drill-targeting tool,” said Bird.