O3 Mining begins exploration at Malartic Property

O3 Mining Inc. has announced the start of drilling on its Malartic property midway between the towns of Val D’Or and Malartic, Quebec, and 12 kilometres from the Canadian Malartic Mine.  

Following the completion of the summer drill program at East Cadillac, one drill has been mobilized to the Malartic property to expand existing zones along strike and at depth and to explore regional targets. The drilling will focus on the extensions of the Orion 8 (historic production of 22,252 oz Au at 5.82 g/t), Gold Hawk, Malartic H, North Shear and North-North zones located near the Marban deposit, where the company is currently conducting a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).  Additionally, regional targets around Marban will be tested.  Approximately 30,000 metres out of the 150,000-metre drilling program has been allocated for the Malartic property.

“The Marban project is a very important asset in our multimillion-ounce portfolio,” says President and CEO, Jose Vizquerra. “To begin drilling the extension of Marban at Gold Hawk is a very important milestone, because we will be able to test the high-grade potential at depth and along strike. The positive results at Gold Hawk will positively impact our Marban project.”

The Malartic property is located approximately 3 kilometres north of the Cadillac Larder-Lake break and contains the Marbenite, Norbenite and North shears that run west-northwest across the property over more than 10 kilometres (Figure 1). The mineralization is mainly distributed along those shears and consists of quartz veining with disseminated pyrite hosted in iron-rich basalt and intermediate to felsic dykes within ultramafic flows. The Marbenite shear is related to the Marban deposit, the Gold Hawk zones and the Orion 8 zone. The Norbenite shear is related to the Norlartic and the Kierens deposits and the North shear to the North zone. The property also hosts the down-plunge extension of the mineralization related to the former Camflo mine. The mine infrastructure crosses the border of the Malartic property around level 2400, 800 metres below the surface and it has been mined out to a depth of 1,200 metres inside the property.  The Camflo mine operated from 1965 to 1992 and produced 1.65Moz Au at 5.8 g/t (Quebec Ministry of Energy and Resources).  Historic intervals on the property have the potential to deliver high-grade results distributed in many mineralized zones.