Granada Gold Mine Inc. (TSXV:GGM) has released a significantly updated mineral resources estimate at the Granada property, a past producer located adjacent to the prolific Cadillac Break in the Abitibi near Rouyn-Noranda and close to several gold deposits and operating mines in north-western Quebec.
The estimates combine in-pit constrained and underground mineral resources estimates and include the results of the 30,000-meter drill programme conducted on the Big Claim at Granada since the last estimate was published in January 2021.
Highlights:
- Measured and indicated in-pit and underground mineral resources estimated at 8,220,000 tonnes grading 2.05 grams/tonne (g/t) gold (Au), containing 543,000 oz Au;
- Inferred in-pit and underground mineral resource estimated at 3,010,000 tonnes grading 4.71 g/t Au, containing 456,000 oz Au;
- New estimates represent a 21% increase in measured and indicated gold mineral resources and a 71% increase in inferred mineral resources compared with the previous estimate;
- Grades are in line with the Company’s target of 2 g/t Au for open pit and 4 g/t Au for underground resources;
- Step-out drilling 250 meters (m) to the north of the pit in the Big Claim confirmed gold mineralisation at depth which was also indicated by past drilling on the property;
- Other step-out drilling further north to a depth of 1,600m surprisingly encountered 21 mineralised zones of alkali metals, with a significant 53.1m thick zone of rubidium grading 340 ppm (in-hole length) above the downward trending gold veins (a rubidium mineral resource to be reported in a separate news release). The real thickness is expected to be about 35-40% of the in-hole length.
“Granada has been successful in achieving its goals with last year’s 30,000m drill programme, which was the first phase of a planned 120,000m of drilling. We had planned to do much of the drilling during the first phase in, around and below the existing pit aiming to significantly increase the gold mineral resources in line with our target grades, and also to confirm gold mineralisation with step-out drilling to the north of the pit.
“We did all that and, with the drill results we reported in news releases along the way and with this resource update, we have quite adequately achieved our goals. In addition, we unexpectedly encountered a massive rubidium mineralisation which has the potential to change the economics of Granada as rubidium is an increasingly important alkali metal used in the EV battery industry,” President and CEO, Frank Basa, said.
“The potential of Granada has not yet been realized, as only about 20% of the property has been explored, and drilling has been conducted on only 2 km of the 5.5km estimated mineralised east-west zone. We have plenty of prospective targets.
“Past and recent drilling confirmed the presence of downward-sloping gold veins at depth to the north of the pit but we mostly have not drilled enough there to count that as part of the mineral resource. And there is a lot of exploration drilling we could do to the east as well along the mineralised zone which we believe could be productive,” Mr Basa added.
The Granada property includes the former Granada Gold underground mine which produced more than 50,000 oz of gold at 9.7 g/t Au from two shafts before a fire destroyed the surface buildings. Bulk samples taken from the surface in the 1990s and since then have graded in the 3-5 g/t range.
For further information please visit: https://granadagoldmine.com/
