O3 drills historic Camflo Extension gold deposit
O3 Mining Inc. [O111-TSXV] on Thursday said it has received results and interpretation from its 6,338-metre drilling program at the Camflo Extension deposit, which is located on its 100%-owned Marban project. Marban is located on the Malartic property near Val D’Or, Quebec.
Drilling highlights include 1.1 g/t gold over 94.3 metres, including 13.8 g/t gold over 1.1 metres in hole 03MA-22-253-/W1. Hole 03MA-21-253 returned 0.7 g/t gold over 116.5 metres and 26.8 g/t gold over 1.0 metre.
The Camflo deposit was first discovered in 1962 by Camflo Mines, and was in production for 30 years from 1962 to 1992. It produced 1.89 million ounces of gold from 10.3 million tonnes of ore grading 5.7 g/t gold. From this amount, 0.24 million ounces was extracted from within the current 03 Mining Marban project claims.
Historically, gold production was mainly restricted to the Camflo Plug, a cigar shaped quartz-monzonite intrusion that plunges 60 degrees towards the north-east. Although the Camflo plug at surface is outside 03 Mining’s property claims, the extension of the plug and the mine below 800 vertical metres is within the Marban project, as it plunges to the north-east.
Exploration efforts by 03 Mining are now aimed to test the depth extensions of the historic Camflo deposit, and test for additional high-grade zones. In keeping with that goal, the company completed 6,338 metres in two drill holes and three wedges on the Camflo Extension.
“The Camflo mine was the first mine from which Barrick Gold Corp. [ABX-TSX, NYSE] started its successful journey, and was stopped due to a challenging gold price environment but not due to a lack of ore,” said O3 President and CEO Jose Vizquerra.
“O3 Mining owns 100% of the Camflo Extension deposit which we successfully tested and verified that it remains a rich mineralized area at depth,” Vizquerra said. “We believe more drilling in this area will unveil its full potential, however, it demands more financial resources which we are allocating to our current brownfield drilling at Marban Engineering to maximize returns to our shareholders.”.
O3 recently released a technical report containing a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its 100%-owned Marban project. The company said it sees Marban as a potential cornerstone for future growth in an area that it considers to be one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions.
The company has said it will work on a pre-feasibility study to advance the Marban project towards production as part of a staged development strategy while continuing its aggressive drill programs.
O3 Mining is a member of the Osisko Group of companies. It is also a mine development and emerging consolidator of exploration properties in the prospective gold camps in Quebec and Ontario. Its goal is to become a multi-million-ounce, high growth company.
On Thursday, O3 shares eased 0.51% or $0.01 to $1.95. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $2.53 and $1.89.