Sage Gold Inc reports on Clavos mine progress

Sage Gold Inc. has announced the following update on the Clavos gold mine. Clavos, situated in Timmins, Ontario, is fully permitted for 700 tpy, and has a life-of-mine toll milling agreement with the Stock mill. The final tranche of US$3.26 million to finance production has been recently drawn down.

Highlights

• Building a stockpile of potentially mineralised materials on surface and underground for a bulk sample shipment.
• Underground stockpile of broken potential mineralisation left by the previous operator.
• Plan an initial mill run in six weeks.
• The underground workings are 87% dewatered with planned drill station to be placed at the 240 m-level (mL) at the end of the month to target potential additional high grade mineralisation.
• Encouraging drill intersections: - 17.78g/t Au- 4.0 m – 100 mL east, 10.59g/t Au - 1.9 m 150 mL east - related to Grade Thickness mode.

Sage currently plans to complete a reserve estimate and a prefeasibility study regarding the Clavos project. In the event that a production decision is made that is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43 - 101, readers are cautioned that there is increased uncertainty and higher risk of economic and technical failure associated with such production decisions.

Nigel Lees, Sage's President and CEO commented:

"The re-opening of the Clavos mine continues to progress well in terms of dewatering of the existing underground structure, rehabilitation and the development of stoping blocks. Definition drilling which progressed slowly at first primarily due to shortage of experienced drillers and equipment is now operating normally. This delay has been offset by the existence of mineralised material previously developed but not mined by the previous owners. Disclosure regarding the stope block definition program will be ongoing as there is currently a backlog of unlogged and unsampled core. We are encouraged by the success of drilling in the grade thickness highs at the 100 mL and 150 mL east levels. These holes are part of ongoing drilling into grade thickness highs which are outside of the resource blocks."

Exploration drilling on the 240 m level will commence shortly in order to test the high grade zones between the 250 m to 700 m elevations principally targeting the historic Kinross hole KC 99-137 (61.59 g/t over 3 m - see press release of 3 May, 2017). We expect to be dewatered to the 261 level by mid September. The 261 level was developed but not mined by previous owner with sample grades of 19.55g/t gold.

Mining and dewatering

Mining has commenced on the 150 east m level, the 100 east m level and shortly on the 150 west m level and the 200 m level. Definition drilling is ongoing on all dewatered levels down to the 200 m level. The mine is currently dewatered to the 260 m Level and dewatering will continue until the 300 m Level (mine bottom) is reached. A list of levels remaining to be dewatered are:

240 E Level, 240 W Level, 240 ACC Level, 250 m Level, 259 m Level, 260 m Level, 261 m Level, 280 m Level, 290 DDB Level, Internal Ramp, Main Ramp.

Definition drilling results

The drilling has been focused on the Hangingwall and Footwall zones comprised of gold, pyrite, arsenopyrite, quartz mineralisation. The quartz vein stockworks and breccias flank porphyry intrusions in altered ultramafic rocks in contact with the Porcupine Group sediments demarked by the Pipestone Thrust Fault. The ring drilling layouts have been conducted on the 100 L, 150 L and 175 L employing a drill hole spacing varying from 7 m to 15 m along strike and to depth between levels. 

The drilling has been targeting existing stope blocks as defined in the PEA referred to as 100 L: 16B, 02A and 175 L: 480 stope. Also, several holes have tested gold enrichment trends identified on the grade times thickness [GXTW] model on 100 L East at 513100E and 150 L East at 513300E. Composite intervals were based on a minimum cut-off grade of 2.75 g/t over a minimum true width of 1.2 m. An allowance of 1.5 m for internal dilution was employed factoring in the stockwork and vein breccia style of gold mineralisation. True widths were calculated by applying an average correction factor of 15% to the assay core lengths. 

The composites related to testing the grade * thickness trends on 100 and 150 mL have been disclosed in the table below. Stope definition drilling is ongoing with 117 holes drilled for a total of 4726 m to date. The stope definition drill programme is designed to delineate stope blocks for subsequent mining.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/01092017/sage-gold-inc-reports-on-clavos-mine-progress/