Monarch releases additional drilling results

The Beaufor Mine initially began commercial production in the early 1930’s and over the years has produced over 1.1 million oz of Au. The mine is currently on care and maintenance, which has given Monarch an opportunity to drill-test targets throughout the mine area. In June 2020, the corporation initiated a 42 500 m diamond drilling programme to test two types of targets: the areas around historical high-grade intersections near the existing underground infrastructure, and isolated resource blocks, which are typically defined by a single drill intersection. Both of these ‘near-mine’ targets can often be tested from the existing underground workings, generally by holes less than 200 m long. Currently, 275 holes are planned or are already being drilled at 25 m centres. If positive results are received, additional holes will be drilled to allow the zones in question to be converted into reserves and included in a future mine plan.

Assay results have been received for the first 121 holes (14 465 m), representing roughly 34% of the planned metres of drilling. High-grade results previously reported from the program included 783 g/t Au over 0.2 m and 293 g/t Au over 0.5 m (see press release dated 1 October 2020) and 35.87 g/t Au over 9.8 m (see press release dated 19 January 2021). Since the last reported results, the corporation has drilled 83 additional holes (9092 m), consisting of 79 exploration holes drilled from underground and 4 holes drilled from the surface. Several of the holes have multiple intersections due to the stacked nature of the mineralisation. The intersection widths reported are core lengths and high-grade intersections have not been capped, as the vein interpretation and statistics have not been finalised for the zones.

“We are thrilled with the results received to date. Our near-mine exploration drilling programme continues to yield high-grade results as we intersect new mineralised zones and extensions of known zones outside the previously defined resource envelope. Monarch’s goal is to significantly increase the near-mine resource so that a minimal amount of new development and capital will be required to put the mine back into production in the short term,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and CEO of Monarch.

Near-mine exploration drilling is ongoing, with four drill rigs underground and one on surface. The focus remains on high-grade composites that are open along strike and existing resource blocks that contain sufficient room for expansion.

In April, Monarch initiated a Phase 2 surface drill program to follow up on recent positive near-surface results, including 35.87 g/t Au over 9.8 m (see press release dated 19 January 2021). This Phase 2 programme consists of approximately 40 short holes totalling 4000 m with the aim of defining additional resources and subsequent reserves.

Sampling consists of sawing the drill core into equal halves along its main axis and shipping one of the halves to ALS Canada in Val-d’Or and AGAT Laboratories in Mississauga, Ontario, for assaying. The samples are crushed, pulverised and assayed by fire assay, with atomic absorption finish. Samples exceeding 10 g/t Au are re-assayed using the gravity method and samples containing visible gold are assayed using the metallic screen method. Monarch uses a comprehensive QA/QC protocol, including the insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/29042021/monarch-releases-additional-drilling-results/