JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Resource and development company Galileo Resources on Tuesday announced positive results from a further seven diamond drill holes (DDHs) from its current drilling programme on the Star Zinc project, in Zambia, in which the company has an 85% interest.
The results include three DDHs showing exceptionally high zinc grades of between 41.51% zinc and 46.58% zinc over widths of between 7 m and 9 m, the company noted.
DDHs, which targeted the periphery of the known mineralised domain, intersected zinc mineralisation of up to 6.4% zinc in near-surface oxidised/weathered lateritic karst zones and in distinct veins or fractures.
“The results are very pleasing in that they exhibit a large zone of exceptionally high-grade zinc mineralisation,” said Galileo CEO Colin Bird.
The additional mineralisation identified in karst/laterite zones, he added, could potentially lead to a considerable bulking up of Star Zinc's overall tonnage.
Other operations have reported smelting directly willemite (zinc mineral) ore in excess of 30% zinc without processing being required other than crushing.
Previous testwork on the project has also shown the karstic material is amenable to leaching.
Another benefit, Bird said, is that the karst mineralisation is close to surface, meaning that it is likely that this could be cheaply mined with minimal blasting.
“Once all results are in place, we will model the various ore types and develop a three-dimensional model [for] direct drilling towards expanding the resource. We are currently testing various geophysical methods against DDH core recovered from the current programme and, subject to that analysis, we intend to conduct a programme of geophysics in the period prior to the next drilling [programme],” he added.