Junior explorer Wallbridge Mining has completed the rehabilitation of existing underground workings at its Fenelon gold mine, in Quebec, and has started ramp development and underground drilling, as it works towards a production decision early next year.
The mine has been dewatered on the existing 5 228 and 5 213 levels and CEO Marz Kord reports that the company is on track to reach the next 5 195 level.
Wallbridge has also started 8 000 m of underground drilling as part of the stope definition and resource expansion programme proximal to the mine workings down to 150 m depth.
The drilling is designed to fill-in and extend the high grade mineralisation intersected last year. Highlight intersections from these programmes included 260.4 g/t gold over 7.02 m, 141.2 g/t gold over 7.06 m and 311.1 g/t gold over 3.06 m.
Deeper drilling to test the down-plunge of known high grade shoots is planned for the fourth quarter, once the lower levels are developed.
A 10 000 m surface drilling programme is also scheduled to start in the latter part of this year to follow known mineralised zones and expand resources at depth and further away from the mine workings.
"We are very excited to start the in-fill and resource expansion drill programme, which will allow us to fully define and expand the high-grade mineralisation we discovered last year. Given the sub-parallel nature of gold-bearing structures at Fenelon, each drill hole is testing multiple zones, thereby not only defining the stopes to be taken during the bulk sample, but also preparing stopes for future production and exploring for additional mineralization," says VP for exploration Attila Pentek.
Wallbridge's Fenelon property is located in north-western Quebec, proximal to the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone, which hosts the Detour gold mine in Ontario, and Balmoral Resources' gold deposits at Martiniere.
Wallbridge bought the property in late 2016.