Calibre Mining plans 100,000-metre drill program for Valentine mine, Newfoundland
Calibre Mining Corp. [TSX-CXB; OTCQX-CXBMF] is planning a 100,000-metre resource expansion and discovery drill program at its 100%-owned, fully financed Valentine gold mine, located in the central region of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
The diamond drilling program is in addition to the previously announced 50,000-metre ore control reverse circulation drill program at the Leprechaun and Marathon deposits and the 10,000-metre Winkie/RAB (rotary air blast) drilling program testing bedrock geology. The expanded program will include a robust geoscience initiative, including a high-definition property-wide LIDAR geophysical survey, till sampling and enhanced prospecting to assist with resource expansion and discovery drilling. This will be the largest pure exploration drilling campaign in Valentine’s history.
Darren Hall, president and CEO, stated: “Valentine currently hosts a robust [greater than] five-million-ounce resource base across 8 km of the 32-km-long main Valentine Lake shear zone (VLSZ), which provides significant additional discovery opportunities from an extremely prospective array of exploration targets with a similar geological setting to the prolific Val d’Or and Timmins camps in the Abitibi gold belt. Between the two main shear zones, the VLSZ and the parallel Northwest Contact shear zone, there is a combined potential of up to 64 km of high-value discovery opportunities.
“As we rapidly expand our knowledge base with incoming results, this exploration program is designed to confirm the vast potential of the Valentine mineral system. The district has the potential to significantly extend mine life and shape our considerations for the phase 2 mill expansion, aiming for increased throughput of the process plant. Our view has always been that Valentine will become a gold camp, and we believe a program of this scale will begin to uncover the incredible opportunity.”
Tom Gallo, senior vice-president, growth, of Calibre, stated: “The discovery potential across the 250-square-kilometre Valentine land package is very strong considering VGM’s orogenic gold setting. The 100,000-metre expanded drill program represents the most extensive pure exploration drilling initiative in Valentine’s history.
“Outside of the three-open-pit-mine plan, which covers only a small portion of the VLSZ, there is considerable district-scale potential across what we believe to be 64 kilometres of shear zone. Several targets that have not yet been drilled but are considered high priority include the Eastern Arm, Northwest Contact, Western Peninsula and Marathon Northeast, where discovery and delineation drilling will commence this summer.
“Additionally, initial 2024 drill results from the Leprechaun and Frank deposits highlight resource expansion potential as well as bolster confidence in model performance, substantiating the mineral reserve estimate indicating an increase in ore tonnes and ounces. Strong down-plunge potential of the existing Leprechaun, Berry and Marathon open pits highlights an additional underground mining opportunity outside of the current 14-year open-pit mine plan, warranting deep drilling to follow up on historical drilling of high-grade zones.”
Calibre is a mid-tier gold producer with a strong pipeline of development and exploration opportunities across Newfoundland and Labrador, Nevada and Washington in the United States, and Nicaragua.