Blackstone Minerals’ recent three-hole drilling program at the company’s Gold Bridge gold and nickel-copper project in British Columbia has returned a series of mineralised sulphide hits in Canada’s western-most province. After the successful results, the company is gearing up for more exploration on the country’s eastern coast.
The first drill hole at Gold Bridge was fired into its Jewel prospect, 800m north-east of Little Gem, the project’s historical cobalt-gold deposit. The initial probe returned multiple gold hits of up to 0.3m at 5.7 grams per tonne gold. In addition, the hole encountered a disseminated and massive sulphide zone of 0.9m at 1.45 per cent copper, 0.56 per cent nickel and 0.19 per cent cobalt from 377m.
Curiously, an off-hole conductor was also picked up presenting a priority target for follow-up geophysical surveying and drill testing. Blackstone sees the results at Jewel as a strong geological proof of concept for a system highly analogous to the world-class Bou Azzer cobalt district in Morocco.
A second drill hole probed the Western Gem prospect, less than 500m from Little Gem, returning 98m of ultramafic rock including an 81m-zone of ultramafic-hosted disseminated sulphides assaying 0.21 per cent nickel from 65m. The third drill hole was plunged at the Western Jewel prospect, less than 1km north of Little Gem and returned 5.15m at 0.19 per cent nickel from 54.5m.
Regionally across Gold Bridge other prospects exist that are yet to be tested. One such prospect is Roxey where rock sampling has returned up to 24 g/t gold, 1.9 per cent copper and 24 g/t silver. Similarly at the project’s Erebor prospect rock sampling has yielded up to 32 g/t gold, 2.3 per cent cobalt, 1.1 per cent nickel and 1.6 per cent copper.
The company plans to follow up its results at Gold Bridge with further exploration using modern high-powered electromagnetic methods.
Blackstone Managing Director, Scott Williamson said: “The maiden three-hole program testing Induced Polarisation targets at the Jewel and Western Gem Prospects successfully encountered disseminated and massive sulphides, and test-work has confirmed the presence of significant nickel sulphides in addition to the cobalt, gold, silver and copper sulphides.”
Gold Bridge was a historically mined project exhibiting high grades of cobalt and gold that was acquired by Blackstone in late 2017. The company believes the project holds some prospects as a Bou Azzer style of mineralisation.
Since being handed the keys to Gold Bridge the company has completed a raft of exploration work including surface sampling, geophysics and 12 diamond drill holes across the project. The latest trio of diamond core holes for 1030m were sunk into undrilled prospects appearing as discrete induced polarisation anomalies surrounding the project’s Little Gem cobalt-gold deposit.
On the other side of the country in the unforgiving province of Labrador, Blackstone recently got its boots on the ground as it looks to firm up a set of historical drill targets at the company’s Twilight nickel-copper project.
Most notably, Labrador is home to the renowned Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper sulphide mine that was sold for CAD$4.3 billion in 1996 by the Robert Friedland-led Diamond Fields Resources to the venerable company INCO, which has since become a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale.
Historical drilling at Twilight — which is over 400km from the renowned mine but still within Labrador — has encountered up to 16m at 0.16 per cent nickel and 0.15 per cent copper from 152m including 0.55 m at 0.34 per cent nickel, 0.36 per cent copper and 374ppm cobalt from 159m associated with gabbro-hosted disseminated sulphides.
Blackstone’s prospecting in the field and inspection of historical drill core has confirmed the nickel and copper sulphide fertility of its ground and has inspired the company to test the underexplored area for massive sulphides with modern high-powered electromagnetic methods.
Blackstone has entered into an option agreement over the project for an initial 80 per cent stake in exchange for an exploration spend of CAD$190,000 per annum in addition to a CAD$65,000 per annum fee for two years. The company will also retain the right to first refusal on the remaining 20 per cent.
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By Matt Birney
