Jaxon Mining Inc (CVE:JAX) said on Friday it had “ticked all the boxes” with its first drilling programme on the Max silver-zinc target at the Hazelton project in Canada.
The exploration company highlighted 11 separate intervals of high-grade silver were intercepted in seven of the 12 exploratory holes drilled in December at the project, which is located 50 kilometres north of Smithers in British Columbia.
All drill holes intercepted sulphide mineralisation indicating a widespread distribution of mineralisation indicative of a robust system, Jaxon said.
A total of 2,281 metres were drilled and 1,019 core samples were selected for assay. The drilling targeted modelled high chargeability and low resistivity locations from the ground-based 2D and 3D induced polarisation (IP) survey.
The 12 completed drill holes tested a roughly one-square kilometre area at the Max target along the north-eastern slope of Blunt Mountain, from elevations of 550 metres (m) to 775m, coincident with the channel sampling completed in the summer of 2017. This drill zone at Max only represents 0.2% of the area of the Hazelton project, which covers a contiguous 47,000 hectares.
Drilling confirmed the diagnostic signature (antimony) of a precious metal rich shallow marine volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) system. The Max target displays characteristics of the nearby Equity Silver Mine (once Canada's most profitable silver mine) including similar age rock, shallow marine setting, and possible remobilization of precious metal rich mineralisation.
Due to the success of blind IP targeting, particularly in drill holes 17-11 and 17-12, Jaxon has made preliminary plans for an additional 1,000 — 4,000 metres of drilling at the Max zone in the coming 2018 field season. This drilling will also cover the area directly adjacent to the north of the known mineralized Max target, where a magnetic low (potentially due to hydrothermal alteration) is coincident with high chargeability targets.
JAX17-08 |
775 |
150 |
120.2 |
121.4 |
1.2 |
111 |
0.691 |
1.82 |
4.88 |
0 |
JAX17-08 |
775 |
|
123.1 |
123.6 |
0.5 |
273 |
0.906 |
3.13 |
11.1 |
0 |
Hole ID |
Alt (m) |
Depth (m) |
from (m) |
to (m) |
Length (m) |
Ag ppm |
Sb % |
Pb % |
Zn % |
Au ppm |
JAX17-06 |
700 |
144 |
95.2 |
96.2 |
1.0 |
114 |
0.509 |
0.73 |
5.27 |
0.003 |
JAX17-09 |
675 |
108 |
30 |
31 |
1.0 |
109 |
0.256 |
0.53 |
4.16 |
0.257 |
JAX17-10 |
625 |
201 |
no high grade intercepts |
|||||||
JAX17-12 |
605 |
174 |
104.8 |
105.3 |
0.5 |
153 |
1.942 |
2.15 |
3.62 |
0.654 |
JAX17-12 |
605 |
|
107.5 |
108.1 |
0.62 |
418 |
5 |
6.87 |
10.29 |
1.077 |
JAX17-11 |
605 |
150 |
92.33 |
92.53 |
0.2 |
1206 |
4.731 |
5.29 |
10.83 |
2.075 |
JAX17-03 |
550 |
231 |
114.1 |
114.6 |
0.5 |
306 |
1.192 |
2.44 |
0.44 |
0.925 |
JAX17-03 |
550 |
|
181.3 |
181.8 |
0.5 |
265 |
2.002 |
3.87 |
2.01 |
0.038 |
JAX17-03 |
550 |
|
192.2 |
192.8 |
0.6 |
146 |
1.316 |
1.51 |
1.23 |
0.085 |
JAX 17-02 |
550 |
201 |
no high grade intercepts |
|||||||
JAX 17-01 |
550 |
171 |
no high grade intercepts |
|||||||
JAX17-04 |
725 |
129 |
37.9 |
38.3 |
0.4 |
15 |
0.268 |
0.64 |
7.78 |
0.268 |
JAX17-07 |
700 |
192 |
76.5 |
78 |
1.5 |
103 |
0.282 |
0.53 |
3.08 |
0.01 |
Jax17-05 |
700 |
129 |
85 |
86.1 |
1.1 |
13 |
0.258 |
0.62 |
2.97 |
0.166 |
“The drill results, as modelled, indicate that we're in a large mineralised volcanogenic system. It's evident that the system carries high grades of precious and base metals, and, importantly, we're beginning to understand its diagnostic signature at depth," said Carl Swensson, vice-president of exploration at Jaxon.
Jason Cubitt, Jaxon's president, said the company would be able “to build on what we seeing here”.
“The next task for us is to add this drill data to our conceptual model, locate the boundaries of this large mineralised system, and vector to the areas where the highest grade mineralisation is structurally controlled," Cubitt said.
Shares closed on Friday at C$0.24.