O3 Mining has announced that it has restarted drilling in Val d’Or with 12 rigs as part of a 150,000-metre program in Quebec.
The 12 drills will use the freezing winter conditions to explore targets in more humid areas. Four rigs are now working on the Malartic property, with 45,000 metres scheduled, and eight are focusing on the Alpha property, where 100,000 metres are planned.
Malartic is host to the Marban project, which was the focus of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) published in September. The current drilling is focused on testing extensions of the PEA deposits and will target the Norlartic-Kierens, North-North, Marban and Gold Hawk deposits. Additional targets include extensions of historic zones which lie within 3 km of the PEA pit shells.
The eight drills at Alpha will continue to focus on expanding the Bullfrog deposit at depth and laterally as well as on the depth extensions of the Orenada #2 and Orenada #4 areas. The rigs will also follow up on intercepts reported from Simkar in December, explore extensions of the Epsilon zone and the Akasaba deposit and test newly generated targets.
“2020 was an incredibly busy and successful year for O3 Mining and 2021 promises to be even more so with extensive drilling programs at both Malartic and Alpha properties,” Jose Vizquerra, O3’s president and CEO, said in a release. “We are aiming to rapidly add to our resource base and extend the mineralized footprint of both properties into new areas to make these projects some of the most attractive, and likely to be developed and exploited in the province.”
O3 holds over 660 sq. km in Val d’Or and controls over 50 km of strike along the Cadillac-Larder Lake fault. The company is part of the Osisko Group.
For more information, visit www.O3Mining.com.