Trillium Gold up 14% on Newman Todd update
Trillium Gold Mines Inc. [TGM-TSXV; CNRMF-OTC] said Tuesday March 2 that it has compiled an exploration block model utilizing drilling completed up to early this year that will be used to guide future drilling at its 100%-owned Newman Todd property located in the Red Lake Mining District, northwestern Ontario.
This updated model offers the potential to consolidate and extend the known high-grade mineralization of the Newman Todd Zone (NT Zone), as well as expand the quantity and grade while also increasing the surrounding halo of lower grade ounces, the company said.
Trillium shares rallied on the news, rising 13.8% or 17 cents to $1.40. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $2.78 and 21 cents, leaving the company with a market cap of $44 million based on 25.9 million shares outstanding.
Drilling continues at the Newman Todd property with the aim of increasing the known extents of the mineralization and fill in untested areas on the NT Zone.
The NT Zone is a 2.2-km long and up to 200-metre-wide structural target. It is regarded as highly prospective as 41% of the 165 historic drill holes have returned intervals of greater than 20 g/t gold over various lengths.
Previous exploration suggests that the property contains over 20 individual high-grade zones along the current strike length of the northeast-trendng Newman Todd Structure. But until recently, the project has been only sparsely drilled or tested at depths below 400 metres
Trillium Gold believes that with the recent exploration drilling of 6,087 metres in 16 drill holes (total drilling used in Tuesday’s update is 51,046 metres in 136 drill holes), guided by updated structural and mineralization models, the NT Zone has the potential to contain significantly more ounces than reported in a 2015 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed by Trillium’s predecessor company Confederation Minerals Ltd.
The 2015 estimate pegged the total indicated resource within a conceptual open pit at 350,000 tonnes of grade 2.76 g/t gold, or 31,000 ounces. On top of that is an inferred resource of 574,000 tonnes of grade 2.78 g/t gold, or 51,000 ounces.
Back in 2015 a mineral resource was also stated for use as an underground model. The underground estimate pegged indicated resources at 68,000 ounces and the inferred resource at 72,000 ounces.