Canada’s North American Palladium (NAP) has increased its budget for underground and definition drilling for 2019 by C$5.7-million, to accelerate drilling underground exploration targets at Lac des Iles (LDI), including Camp Lake, Offset Zone satellites and the recently-discovered Zone C.
The funding will support the completion of about 25 000 m of underground exploration drilling and 75 000 m of resource definition drilling this year.
Next month, the company plans to position a drill in the new exploration drift located at the deepest level of the mine (1 065 m level). This drill will begin exploration drilling on the Camp Lake target. A second underground exploration drill will continue to test for major extensions to the known B Zone targets.
“The discovery of the C Zone is testimony to the effectiveness of our modelling of the critical structures that control the distribution of the known palladium resources at LDI,” said NAP exploration VP Dr Dave Peck.
“With our recently expanded target bank and a larger drilling budget, we are increasingly optimistic about the prospects for significant additions to our palladium mineral inventory at LDI,” he added.
The C Zone has become a major focus for underground exploration because of the encouraging drilling results, the modelled size of the target area and its location relative to existing infrastructure. The C Zone’s close proximity to the existing Offset Zone mining areas means that it would be a low capital cost development opportunity if new resources are defined within it.