Nine Mile Metals Ltd, a Canadian Exploration Company declared that it has received all essential drill permits on its Wedge Project southwest of the Brunswick #12 Mine.
“New” Drill Program High Priority Targets, Wedge Project Area, New Brunswick. Image Credit: Nine Mile Metals.
Lantech Drilling is scheduled to commence drilling on these top-priority locations immediately following the completion of the ongoing operation at Nine Mile Brook. The Lantech track mount rig will be mobilized shortly after a required hiatus during the past three weeks, coinciding with the New Brunswick hunting season.
The company has identified a total of nine high-priority target areas within the western camp portfolio, with a particular focus on the recently acquired Wedge Project. This project is situated 20 km southwest of the Brunswick #12 mine.
These priority targets encompass the historical Wedge Mine, the previously untested Cominco Wedge Mine Extension, the newly acquired Wedge North Target, which forms the final piece of the California Lake East Trend, as well as West Wedge and Tribag, collectively representing a 4.5-km-long VMS (Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide) Trend. Additionally, the Lower 44 Mile Brook targets are included in this comprehensive exploration plan.
Discovered in 1956, the Wedge Mine is situated at the northern end of a robust magnetic linear feature. From 1962 to 1968, the mine yielded 1.503 million metric tons with grades of 2.88% copper, 0.65% lead, 1.81% zinc, and 20.6 grams per ton of silver. According to McCutcheon et al. (2005), there was a historically measured resource of 545,200 metric tons, consisting of 1.75% copper, 1.71% lead, and 5.21% zinc, extending to a depth of 274 m.
In the northwest, both West Wedge and Tribag are situated along the western flank of a magnetic anomaly similar to the one at the Wedge. At Tribag, Slam Exploration Ltd.'s trenching efforts in 2017 revealed significant lead and zinc mineralization, ranging from massive to strongly disseminated.
Meanwhile, at the West Wedge, prior drilling intersected mineralization with percentages as high as 12.8% zinc, 5.35% lead, and 0.78% copper, along with 70.6 grams per ton of silver and 1.30 grams per ton of gold over a 3.8 m interval.
The mineralization at both the West Wedge and Tribag is found within the sediments and volcanic rocks of the Spruce Lake Formation, which is part of the California Lake Group.
With previous drilling focused on known occurrences, the VMS mineralization at the Wedge Project has considerable room for expansion. The favorable horizon is over 5 kilometers in length defined by anomalous base metal soil geochemistry and coincident zones of conductivity. We look forward to testing these high priority targets.
Gary Lohman, B.Sc., PGO, VP Exploration and Director, Nine Mile Metals
The strategic acquisitions have successfully granted Nine Mile full ownership of the California East VMS Trend, including targets 6 and 8. The company firmly believes that the acquisition of claims covering target 6 marks the completion of the strike extension of the mineralization encountered in the eight highly successful California Drill hole results of 2022.
The California East VMS Trend spans approximately 3 km, running in parallel to the geological formations hosting the Canoe Landing Lake Deposit to the east, which boasts a deposit size of 33.8 million metric tons. Target 2, known as the Wedge Mine Extension, was initially identified and planned for drilling by Cominco but was never initiated.
The original cross-section of the Wedge Mine deposit reveals that the deposit remains open both in terms of depth and along its geological strike. The Company eagerly anticipates the opportunity to conduct tests within this historically significant mine, with the aim of intersecting the high-grade mineralization we have previously reported.
The complete Wedge VMS Trend has been identified through the utilization of EarthEx’s proprietary re-processing algorithm technology. This extensive trend stretches over a length of 5 km.
Our strategic acquisitions now allow us to execute our exploration program without limitations. We now own the entire California East and Wedge VMS Trends. We are excited to test these high priority targets identified by our (3) technology systems and now that the Hunting season break is over, we are ready to get back to our Fall Drill Program.
Patrick J Cruickshank, CEO and Director, Nine Mile Metals
Cruickshank added, “We will also test the Wedge Mine at depth and along trend “the Cominco Extension” that Cominco identified and scheduled to drill but never executed. We are highly encouraged by our Wedge Ore assays representing high grade Copper up to 29% and Lead-Zinc up to 41% previously reported. We continue to evaluate new technologies in the exploration space, the BMC has only 1% outcrop and 99% is subsurface hidden vertical deposits.”
“Every 20 years a new technology causes the discovery of many new deposits. Our technical team of professionals including EarthEx and our AI partner, are working to uncover the next signature for exploration successes in the BMC,” continued Cruickshank.
“EarthEx proprietary technology has clearly identified the existing Canoe Landing Lake & The Wedge Deposits in their processes and we are highly encouraged to test their newly identified targets. We look forward to our next news release sharing our progress,” concluded Cruickshank.