JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Spurred on by high-grade intercepts at the McGregor and Celtic Tiger prospects at the Kildare project, explorer Zinc of Ireland on Friday announced the start of a Phase 3 drilling programme.
The first hole, 006, of the programme is focusing on the McGregor prospect, where ZMI is seeking to extend mineralisation along strike and eastwards of the “spectacular” intercept in Hole 003 that was announced in June. The hole returned 3.25 m at 12.7% zinc and 0.8% lead from 396.53 m, including 7.69 m at 17.2% zinc and 1% lead from 401.33 m.
The second rig, which will arrive next month, will target the newly discovered Celtic Tiger prospect.
“Finding orebodies requires luck, hard work and good science, and with a modicum of each in the past year, ZMI has delivered a resource, arguably the best zinc drilling intercept of 2017, and a nearby discovery at Celtic Tiger within 200 m of the surface. We aim to build on that in our Phase 3 drilling programme,” ZMI MD Peter van der Borgh said on Friday.
He added that ZMI was upbeat about the prospects of zinc, declaring that the company expected the price to increase substantially.
“Zinc is the fourth most required industrial metal the world needs, and the current level of zinc supplies resembles those in 2006 that led to a price breakout. We see the zinc price heading north in a substantial and sustainable way.”
The McGregor prospect hosts the majority of ZMI’s maiden inferred resource of 5.2-million tonnes at 8.6% zinc and lead.