JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold explorer and developer Dalradian Resources has started a 30 000-m surface drilling programme at its Curraghinalt project, in Northern Ireland, as part of its 2017 exploration programme.
Five drill rigs were currently operating, the company reported on Thursday.
The surface drilling will be primarily step-out holes, with the objective of investigating extensions of the Curraghinalt deposit, which is open in all directions.
"The 2017 work programme will enhance our Curraghinalt gold project through new drilling, and geotechnical, geological and engineering studies. Infill drilling from our underground programme has confirmed high-grade mineralisation within the existing resource envelope. We are now stepping out of that envelope to test the extensions of those high-grade veins. Over our seven years of exploration at Curraghinalt we have been successful in expanding the mineral resource more than sevenfold,” said president and CEO Patrick Anderson.
"Concurrently, results from test mining and processing of Curraghinalt mineralised material have confirmed that the deposit responds well to mechanised mining methods, ounces recovered in mining are consistently higher than predicted by the resource model and recoveries of more than 94% are achievable," he added.