Feb 9 2018
Foran Mining Corporation provides an update on its activities at the McIlvenna Bay zinc-copper property in Saskatchewan. McIlvenna Bay, located within the Hanson Lake District, is part of a world class VMS belt that extends from Snow Lake, Manitoba, through Flin Flon to Foran’s ground in Saskatchewan, a distance of over 200 kilometres. The McIlvenna Bay deposit is the largest undeveloped VMS deposit within this trend.
Patrick Soares, President & CEO of Foran commented, “We are pleased with the speed in which the crew mobilized and initiated drilling. Management is focused on moving McIlvenna Bay forward as quickly as possible. There are few projects with the attributes of McIlvenna Bay and we are well positioned to take this project to feasibility and beyond.”
Infill drilling is currently underway, with three drills actively working on the Property. Drilling has been fast-tracked since the decision was made to advance the McIlvenna Bay deposit to feasibility at the end of January 2018. Glencore Canada Corporation (“Glencore”) and Foran signed a Technical Services Agreement in December 2017 which contemplates Glencore contributing its vast technical expertise towards the preparation of a Feasibility Study on the McIlvenna Bay deposit (“Study”). The infill drill program has been designed by Foran and Glencore in order to improve the size and quality of the resource estimate and upgrade as much of the resource as possible to reserve status to be included in the upcoming Study. The winter program is currently comprised of 22 drill holes totaling approximately 10,500 metres, to be drilled off frozen low-lying areas. A second drill program comprised of approximately 7,500 metres is being planned for the summer months to target areas of the McIlvenna Bay deposit overlain by higher ground that can be drilled under summer conditions. Additional holes may be added to the winter program if ground conditions remain favourable and they are deemed to have the potential to expand and/or upgrade the known McIlvenna Bay resource.
To date, nine holes from the winter program have been completed and assay results are pending.
Target A Exploration Drilling
In addition to the infill and resource definition drilling on the McIlvenna Bay deposit, Foran’s technical team has also extended MR-17-09 at Target A.
Extension drilling successfully intersected what is believed to be the upper edge of modelled Target A conductor plates. Drilling encountered 11 metres of strong silica-garnet-chlorite alteration with 8 to 10% foliation parallel and net textured pyrrhotite at a downhole depth of 1,385 metres. This intersection fits well with the modelled borehole EM from 2017 which suggests that the bulk of the conductivity lies below or down dip from the drill hole. Alteration and mineralization is considered exhalative and may represent the margins of a hydrothermal system within felsic volcanic rocks similar to those hosting the McIlvenna Bay deposit.
Based on this most recent interpretation of Target A, a fourth drill has been mobilized to the Property. Additional borehole EM surveying is underway and will provide data to better model the conductor at depth. A wedged drill hole is planned to further test the target down dip below MR-17-09.