GUYANA GOLDFIELDS: SLASHES GUIDANCE, STARTS RESOURCE MODEL REVIEW / 3 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM
SPECIAL FOCUS
PRAIRIE PROVINCES
Juniors persevere in Athabasca, despite prolonged uranium slump / 9–13
DELIVERING QUALITY EXPERTISE GLOBALLY ACROSS THE ENTIRE MINING LIFE CYCLE
VTEM™ | ZTEM™ | Gravity | Magnetics 905 841 5004 | geotech.ca
WWW.SGS.COM/MINING
MINERALS@SGS.COM
NOVEMBER 12–25, 2018 / VOL. 104 ISSUE 23 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS · SINCE 1915 / $3.99 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM
Almaden nears feasibility at Ixtaca in Mexico
Group Eleven advances on three fronts in Ireland ZINC
| Vancouver-based junior explores Ballinalack, Stonepark and Silvermines
GOLD
| Says production decision could be a year away BY RICHARD QUARISA
I
rquarisa@northernminer.com
n 2010, Almaden Minerals (TSX: AMM; NYSE-AM: AAU) drilled the discovery hole at its Ixtaca gold-silver project in Puebla State, Mexico. It was found on claims company president and CEO Morgan Poliquin staked with his father, company chairman Duane Poliquin, in 2001. Today, Morgan Poliquin says the project is a year away from a production decision, which can be traced back more than two decades. Poliquin has worked as a geologist in Mexico since the early 1990s. In 1995, he theorized that Vera Cruz, Puebla’s neighbour to the east, had potential for goldsilver mineralization. He and his father, both geological engineers, drove around taking samples. One came from the discovery outcrop that became Candelaria Mining’s (TSXV: CAND; US-OTC: CDELF) Caballo Blanco gold project. “That spurred us to do a regional program,” Poliquin says. “So I compiled all the geological data for Texas through to Guatemala, and I spent a lot of time for more than a decade landing on every outcrop.” The two developed a projectgenerator model. Before 2008’s financial crash, their company had 15 joint ventures. It lost most of them after the crash, but stayed in good financial shape. It decided to drill some of its projects itself. Almaden’s Ixtaca project features a low-sulphidation, epithermal vein system hosted in limestone. The mineralization is not oxidized, and contains the silver-gold alloy electrum. “It’s not a vein,” Poliquin says. “It’s hundreds of veins that define the vein zone.” The vein zone is hosted in limestone, with no lead or zinc. The See ALMADEN / 14
Driller at work on Group Eleven Resources’ Stonepark zinc property near Limerick in the Republic of Ireland. PHOTO BY RICHARD QUARISA BY RICHARD QUARISA rquarisa@northernminer.com DUBLIN, IRELAND
I
reland hosts two prospective horizons for zinc-lead mineralization: the Waulsortian limestone zone, and the deeper Pale Beds, also known as the Navan Beds. Group Eleven Resources (TSXV: ZNG) hosted a recent trip to three of its zinc-lead projects in the Republic of Ireland to make sure visitors understood this fact. The Navan Beds are named after the prolific Navan deposit, which feeds New Boliden’s (STO: BOL) Tara mine. In most places there is only one zone, but the two overlap substantially at Group Eleven’s Ballinalack project. “If you go too far north or south, you lose one or the other,” Group Eleven CEO Bart Jaworski says from the field office in nearby Mullingar. At Ballinalack, Group Eleven is compiling all the exploration data other companies generated during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Syngenore found the deposit in
“THE DRILLING WE’RE DOING RIGHT NOW IS TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE FAULTS AND THE KNOWN AREAS OF MINERALIZATION.”
PM40069240
JOHN BARRY VICE-PRESIDENT OF EXPLORATION STRATEGY, GROUP ELEVEN RESOURCES
1970. Oliver Resources tabled a feasibility study for it in 1991. Teck Resources (TSX: TECK; NYSE: TECK) acquired it in 2005, and Zhongjin Lingnan Mining paid Teck US$6 million for a 40% interest in 2009. As a result, Group Eleven has access to more than 93,000 metres of drilling. Nearly 64,000 metres of that is historic, with Teck drilling 29,400 metres in more modern times. Group Eleven estimates more than $30 million has already been spent on the project by its previous owners. It was arduous to pull together all the data, as the work history is complex. Historically, companies have focused on mineralization in the Waulsortian limestone. However,
Group Eleven says the Navan Beds may host a second, deeper deposit right underneath. Group Eleven chief operating officer David Furlong first came up with the idea. The company would go on to find a 1980s report by a BHP Billiton (LON: BLT) geologist suggesting the possibility of stacked deposits. No one has drilled deep enough in the right spots to find out. “We now know previous attempts were drilling too far away from the Ballinalack fault,” Jaworski says. The company has found four targets in the Navan beds it plans to explore. It has drilled holes into two of those targets, confirming they are prospective. See GROUP ELEVEN / 2
EMX ROYALTY: BANKS US$65M ON SALE OF RUSSIAN COPPER PLAY / 6
1-16, 23_NOV12_Main .indd 1
2018-11-06 7:49 PM