Hudbay Minerals drills 3.81% copper over 3.5 metres at Lalor, Manitoba
Hudbay Minerals Inc. [HBM-TSX, NYSE] reported positive results from its 2023 winter drill program near its Lalor mine in Snow Lake, Manitoba, and has significantly consolidated land in the Snow Lake region through several strategic transactions.
The agreements with multiple landholders will increase Hudbay’s holdings in the Snow Lake region by more than 250% to a total of 2,690 km2. The drilling results and the regional land acquisitions provide the potential for mine life extension at Hudbay’s Snow Lake operations beyond 2038.
Highlights: Step-out drilling approximately 500 metres northwest of Lalor has intersected a series of base metal and copper-gold zones, including a high-grade copper-gold-silver zone: Recent borehole electromagnetic surveys have identified multiple conductive horizons with target generation and planning for future drilling campaigns in progress.
Down plunge drilling from Lalor indicates the alteration zone, hosting mineralization currently being mined, continues for at least 2 km to the north.
Acquisition of the Cook Lake properties in Snow Lake provides additional potential for a new discovery. The Cook Lake properties are untested by modern deep geophysics. Historical drilling intersected base metal and gold mineralization, and the drill programs were limited to an average depth of only 275 metres, which is a fraction of Lalor’s current known depth of approximately 600 to 1,500 metres.
Incorporating the recently announced agreement to acquire Rockcliff Metals Corp., Hudbay’s land position within trucking distance of its Snow Lake processing facilities will expand by more than 250%.
These positive exploration results and land consolidation initiatives provide the potential to deliver increases in near-term production, mine life extension and substantial long-term value creation from Hudbay’s Snow Lake operations.
Peter Kukielski, president and CEO, commented: “Since the start-up of Lalor in 2014, much of our focus has been on in-mine resource conversion, where we have had tremendous success adding over two million ounces of additional high-grade gold reserves. In our first step-out and down plunge drill program since the initial discovery of the gold and copper-gold lenses at Lalor more than a decade ago, the results demonstrate the potential to replicate our exploration success through the discovery of additional high-grade zones that could enhance near-term production and further extend mine life. We are also consolidating our land package in the prospective Snow Lake greenstone belt, where we have more than tripled our land holdings to provide further opportunity for the discovery of new deposits to unlock meaningful long-term value at our Snow Lake operations.”
Highlights: Hole CH2302 intersected three mineralized zones, including 7.0 metres of 3.06% zinc and 15.1 g/t silver; 3.5 metres of 3.81% copper, 3.75 g/t gold and 104.5 g/t silver; and 7.5 metres of 3.87% zinc and 7.5 g/t silver.
Hole LX0188 intersected 13.0 metres of 13.0 g/t silver. Hole CH2206 intersected 9.9 metres of 18.9 g/t silver and 1.49% zinc, and 3.8 metres of 9.7 g/t silver and 4.30% zinc.
Hole CH2303 intersected 9.7 metres of 106 g/t silver and 6.4 metres of 11.7 g/t silver and 2.7% zinc.
In addition, recent borehole electromagnetic surveys have identified multiple conductive horizons, and Hudbay is in the process of generating targets and a plan for the next drilling campaign.
Hudbay’s 2023 winter drill program in Snow Lake also included four drill rigs testing the down plunge copper-gold extensions of the Lalor deposit in the first drilling in the deeper zones at Lalor since the initial discovery of the copper-gold zones in 2009 and 2010. This initial campaign consisted of eight widely spaced drill holes over a distance of 2 km. Seven of the drill holes reached their planned minimum depth of 1,500 metres prior to the spring thaw that necessitated an early end of the program. All holes intersected the zone of strong alteration known to host the Lalor mineralization and have shown many occurrences of disseminated copper sulphides indicating the potential close proximity of one or more higher-grade copper-gold feeder zones similar to Lens 27 currently in production at Lalor.
In late June, 2023, Hudbay completed the acquisition of the Cook Lake properties located within 10 km and along the same regional trend as Hudbay’s Lalor mine, and have the potential to host a new discovery at depth. The properties include the Cook Lake North and South properties, which are within 30 km of Hudbay’s Stall and New Britannia processing facilities.
The company’s 2024 exploration plans include regional geophysical surveys to be conducted on the newly consolidated land package in Snow Lake. The company also expects to refine targets for its 2024 winter drilling campaign to the northwest and down plunge from Lalor using the results from geophysical borehole surveys.