Imperial Metals hits gold-copper targets at Mount Polley, B.C.
Imperial Metals Corp. (III-TSX) has released an update on exploration and production activity at its Mount Polley mine in British Columbia. The company said the mine reached its 2024 production targets by producing 35.7 million pounds of copper and 39,108 ounces of gold last year.
That compares to targets of between 34 million and 37 million pounds of copper and 37,000 to 41,000 ounces of gold production.
In early trading Thursday, Imperial shares eased 0.5% or $0.01 to $1.97. The shaes trade in a 52-week range of $2.73 and $1.70.
Imperial is a Vancouver-based exploration, development and operating company with a portfolio of B.C. mines that includes Mount Polley (100%), the Huckleberry mine (100%), and the Red Chris mine 30%.
Mount Polley is an open pit copper/gold mine located in south-central B.C., 56 kilometres northeast of Williams Lake.
Red Chris production will be released when the reconciled information is received from Newmont Corp. [NGT-TSX, NEM-NYSE], which now holds a 70% stake in the mine. Red Chris is located 80 kilometres south of Dease Lake in northwest B.C.
Imperial said the Mount Polley Phase 2.0 exploration program in 2024, consisting of 6,758 metres in 27 diamond drill holes, had two objectives. The first was to complete near-pit drilling targeting the Springer pit rim and the C2 zone located just south of the now combined Springer-Cariboo pit and close to the concentrator. The second was to test high-priority geophysical, structural and geochemical and geological targets outside the active pit area.
The highlight of this drilling campaign is hole C2-24-115, which intersected 127.5 metres of grade 0.72% copper and 1.43 g/t gold, starting from 302.5 metres. The hole targeted a deeper, higher-grade C2 mineralization that had been intersected by three historic drill holes. Mineralized intervals in these three holes included hole C2-11.101, with 34.5 metres of 0.54% copper and 0.95 g/t gold from 297.5 metres, hole C2-11-97, with 57.5 metres of 1.16% copper and 2.07 g/t gold from 340 metres and hole C2-11-100, with 64.3 metres of 0.72% copper and 0.99 g/t gold from 382.5 metres.
The company said this mineralization is deep, but grades may be sufficient to consider underground mining. The zone is open to depth.
The other phase 2 holes in the C2 zone targeted near to surface mineralization and include a notable interval of 222 metres of grade 0.45% copper and 0.62 g/t gold starting from a depth of 18 metres (subcrop) in diamond drill hole C2-24-110.
Historically, a small pit was excavated in the C2 zone adjacent to the ramp in the Cariboo pit and mineralization in this zone has a high gold to copper ratio. The 2024 near-surface drilling was conducted to see if the small C2 pit design could be expanded to take advantage of the current high gold price.
The company also tested blind targets, including the Gatehouse and Wishbone zones. Exploration results will be assessed and follow-up drilling considered.