Crocodile Gold Corp. has announced additional high grade intersections from a drill hole at Crosscourse Deposit, Union Reefs. The intersections were found in a broad zone of medium grade mineralization and numerous sections of visible gold were seen throughout the significant core length beneath the Crosscourse pit.
The entire 181.2 meter length from 389.2 to 570.4 meters returned an average grade of 1.81 g/t Au.
Highlights of this drill hole include:
- 8.89 g/t Au over 12.3 metres;
- 4.51 g/t Au over 14.08 metres, including 16.2 g/t Au over 3.8 metres;
- 13.28 g/t Au over 3.65 metres;
- 14.83 g/t Au over 2.1 metres.
Management believes the Crosscourse deposit is an excellent target for the company to focus exploration efforts because of it's proximity to the Union Reefs mill. Additionally, permitting is in place and the underground infrastructure could be accessed from a single entry point from the base of one of the existing historical pits.
The expansion of resources to vertical depths of 300-400 meters will take a few months to complete but it is anticipated that an underground mining center at Crosscourse can be defined and brought into production fairly quickly, supporting the company's strategy to add low cost, high grade production to the near-term mine plan. A desktop study for the underground exploration program in 2012 is underway with initial concepts and costs expected to become available later this year.
Commenting on the results, Chief Operating Officer, David Keough stated: "these continued high grade results support our short and medium term strategy to add quality, high grade ore to our Union Reefs mill. We believe the focus on adding higher grade ore to our production profile over the next few years will, in turn, positively affect our profitability by decreasing average cash costs."
Drilling by past operators under the Crosscourse pit targeted the high-grade mineralization identified as the E-Lens. Drill intercepts from past operators on the E-lens below the pit bottom include: 11 metres @ 6.60 g/t Au, 36 metres @ 4.10 g/t Au and 16 metres @ 6.00 g/t Au. An historic mineral resource estimate for the Crosscourse E-Lens indicated 150,000 tonnes grading 4.3 g/t Au. The deepest intersection of 14.83 g/t Au over 2.1 meters is interpreted to be a possible depth continuation of a near surface western lodes defined by past operators that had a historic resource of 18,000 tonnes grading 14.56g/t Au (a qualified person has not carried out the work required to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources for Crocodile Gold and therefore Crocodile Gold is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources).
Past production from the Crosscourse pit amounted to 13,036,535 tonnes averaging 1.7 g/t Au producing over 700,000 ounces of gold. Approximately 83% of the gold from the Union Reefs open pits came from the Crosscourse pit.
Crocodile Gold will continue drilling at Union Reefs for the foreseeable future, including through the wet season, to quickly expand the resource base in this area. Following completion of the drilling program, Crocodile Gold plans to update mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates.
The exploration team has designed the next phase of drilling to focus on the Prospect Deposit, an additional high grade deposit with similar benefits as Crosscourse. Past production from the Prospect Deposit amounted to 411,994 tonnes grading 1.6g/t Au to produce 21,242 ounces of gold.
An historic mineral resource calculation for the mineralization under the Prospect pit indicated 144,000 tonnes grading 11.7 g/t Au to a depth of approximately 30 metres below the pit bottom. Note that a qualified person has not carried out the work required to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources for Crocodile Gold and therefore Crocodile Gold is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources. A revised resource calculation will be produced at the end of 2011 and additional resource calculations will be formulated in 2012 when the deep drilling program is completed.
Crocodile Gold's exploration group is also looking at other deposits in the Union Reefs area including Orinoco, Wellington and Elizabeth. A drill program is planned for the Orinoco Deposit to determine if sufficient resources are present to include it in the Company's future mine plan. The Wellington and Elizabeth deposits have some interesting historic high-grade drill intercepts that need additional work to see if they can be expanded upon.