The second phase of exploration drilling is now underway at Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) Long Lake gold project, near Sudbury in Canada.
The programme is designed to follow up the successful first phase drilling, which found extensions to Long Lake’s historic, near surface mine workings.
Sunrise chairman Patrick Cheetham believes the next drill programme will be a key milestone in the coming months, and while acknowledging that the results were positive last time round, he believe this second phase of drilling will be pivotal to the group’s plans for Long Lake. Sunrise secured a three-year option to acquire the project last year.
“It is likely to be a make or break programme for project,” Cheetham told Proactive Investors. “The results will be very influential as far as our option to acquire the project is concerned.”
The programme is designed to test down-dip and along-strike extensions to the gold mineralisation mined in the period prior to the mine's closure in 1939 and will test a number of recently defined geophysical targets around the mine site, Sunrise said.
The two new prospects are known as ‘E1’ and ‘Anomaly 23’.
The diamond drill programme will consist of ten holes, for a total of 1,000 metres. Sunrise is expects the programme to last for six weeks.
It then expects the first analytical results, from drill samples, will be available within 6 weeks after drilling finishes.
Earlier this year Sunrise reported results from its first round of drilling at the mine site included a best result of 17 metres grading 2.9 grams per ton of gold, including 2.3 metres grading 16.1 grams per ton within a 35 metre thick interval grading two grams per ton. Grades to 55 grams per ton (1.8 ounces gold per tonne) were also reported over narrow intervals.
The deepest hole from that programme intersected the mineralised mine sequence in the predicted position below the mine workings confirming continuation of the mineralisation at depth.
Further drilling is also planned to test a number of recently-defined geophysical targets around the mine site and nearby.