Imperial Metal Corporation completed 9,235 meters of drilling since December at the deep East Zone of Red Chris mine, a joint venture with Newcrest as the operator. Newcrest owns 70pc while IMC owns the remaining 30pc.
There are two drilling campaigns taking place Red Chris. The first is East Zone Resource Definition Programme (EZRDP), which is designed to support studies on underground block cave mining through geological, geotechnical and metallurgical data, and the second is the Brownfield Exploration Programme, which is designed to search higher grade minerals.
EZRDP has 16 angled drill holes out of which seven holes are complete. According to the latest results, 0.54pc copper was recovered at 570 meters at the first hole, 0.89pc copper at 658 meters, and 1.3pc copper at 662 meters. At the second hole, 0.46pc copper at 458 meters was recovered, followed by 0.91pc copper at 596 meters, and 1.1pc copper at 622 meters. At the third hole, 1.7pc copper was recovered at 684 meters, 2.5pc copper at 688 meters, 3.8pc copper at 720 meters, and 4.7pc copper at 738 meters.
Since mineralization is supported by historical drilling data, Newcrest intends to implement a new resource model of historical and company drilling data. More drilling at Red Chris mine is planned, the purpose of which is primarily to understand the zone’s full potential and to identify some high-grade minerals in the area.
At the Brownfields Exploration programme, six holes were drillled and there are plans to search for new high-grade minerals. At the Gully zone, 0.29pc copper was recovered at 634 meters and 0.38pc copper at 636 meters.