O3 Mining (TSXV: OIII) (OTCQX: OIIIF) announced a second drill rig at its Marban regional project in Quebec focusing on its Malartic H deposit.
The drilling is part of the 14,000 metre brownfield resource expansion drilling program at Marban Engineering. It will also be helping prepare a maiden resource estimate for Q2, 2203. Malartic H is five kilometers of the processing plant based on the Marban pre-feasibility study.
“The drilling at Malartic H will enable us to complete the delineation of the main deposit and publish a maiden inferred resource estimate during Q2-2023. We are confident that our systematic drilling campaign will allow us to identify additional ounces at Marban”, said Jose Vizquerra, O3 Mining president and chief executive officer.
The Niogold Mining Corporation (TSXV: NOX) has thoroughly tested the space over the past two decades with strong results.
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Historic drilling shows strong intercepts
Historic gold intercepts at Malartic H. Image via O3 Mining.
The Malartic H deposit has a strike length of 600 meters, 300 meters wide and down to a vertical depth of 500 meters.
The Malartic H deposit is also located between the northwestern extensions of the Marbenite and Norbenite shears. These host most of the resources of the Marban engineering project. The two shears trend northwest and dip 70 degrees to the northeast. The deposit is hosted by an alternance of mafic and ultramafic volcanic sequence of the Jacola formation.
Consequently, a mafic rock is a dark coloured silicate mineral rich in magnesium and iron. The most mafic minerals are olivine, pyroxene, amphibole and biotite, while other common rocks include basalt, diabase and gabbro. Mafic and ultramafic rocks are important to gold mining because they often contain gold–bearing quartz veins. They can also provide clues to the location of gold deposits. Additionally, mafic and ultramafic rocks are frequently associated with hydrothermal alteration, which can indicate of gold mineralization.
The Hygrade area demonstrates the presence of numerous intermediate dike systems injected in the volcanic sequence. The mineralization occurs as disseminated pyrite with local visible gold in quartz veins and veinlets and disseminated in the host rock. These zones correlate with connections between mafics and ultramafic volcanic rocks or with the intermediate dikes.
Basalt is an example of a mafic mineral. Photo by http://resourcecommittee.house.gov/ via WIkimedia Commons
Additionally, the mineralized system is completely open at depth and partially open laterally. It’s also located 1 kilometer to the north of a Malartic Hygrade former mine.
O3 Mining also intends on continuing its brownfield exploration program with 6,000 more meters planned for Malartic H. It intends on having a maiden mineral resource estimate available by Q2, 2023.
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