McEwen’s Black Fox Mine on pace for longer life
The Timmins region’s most unassuming mine continues to show signs of an extended shelf life. Late this summer, McEwen Mining quietly released some high-grade drill results at its Stock Township Black Fox Mine complex that suggest the complex can be significantly expanded. In fact, the company has announced that construction of a ramp to Stock West will begin this December. “The significance of this mineralization is the prospect of very early mining and cash flow, making the development of the Stock ramp partially self-funding,” said the company in an early October statement.
The company says drilling continues to encounter good grades and widths at shallow depths, in proximity to the surface entrance portal of the ramp that will be driven to access the Stock West deposit.
“The drill results are also important since it demonstrates that the mineralized system at Stock West is present well outside of the current resource model and continues deeper,” said the company. The new assay results from the Stock Property, part of the Fox Complex indicate a potential impact of a shorter payback yet longer mine life.
Geological investigations have identified two principal plunge directions controlling mineralization at Stock with both appearing to originate at the “Ramp Portal Zone”. Results from 21 diamond drillholes were favorable and reported three key target areas at the Stock West Project: “Ramp Portal Zone”, “Shallow Plunge” and “Steep Plunge”. In addition, there are two intriguing results which suggest other directions for the Stock resource to grow.
Three of the drill holes were particularly impressive including; 21.6 g/t Au over 5.1m, 38.5 g/t Au over 7.4m and 98.8 g/t Au over 0.9m.
Intriguing Results
The first intriguing assay is located deep into the footwall of the Stock West resource within a Timiskaming-aged sedimentary wedge and returned 98.8 g/t Au over 0.9 m in drillhole S23-281. Because the orientation of the sedimentary wedge is well defined by more than 100 holes drilled since 2019 that were only selectively sampled based on visual cues, a staged resampling project is now warranted for these particular sediments. This result is significant because it now demonstrates the potential for narrow, high-grade gold values within a unit that was generally not considered to carry significant mineralization at the Stock property. Timiskaming-aged sediment is known to carry gold mineralization elsewhere in the Timmins camp, such as at Newmont’s Pamour mine.
The second result is also located in the footwall of Stock West with drillhole S23-293 returning 3.0 g/t Au over 5.3 m approximately 250 meters down-dip and down-plunge from Stock West. This result is also important since it demonstrates that the mineralized system at Stock West is present well outside of the current resource model and continues deeper.
An updated mineral resource estimate for the Stock deposit is expected to be complete by year’s end. Overall, McEwen seems to be pointed in the right direction.
The Fox Complex performed well during the third quarter and is on track to slightly exceed the mid-point of their guidance range. Fox has achieved 738 days without a lost time injury as of September 30th. Mining at Froome is on track and the Stock mill continues to increase average throughput. McEwen Mining was pleased as they saw great exploration drilling results at their Stock Complex including the ‘Ramp Portal Zone’, which may represent an early mining horizon for their upcoming Stock West project.
The Fox Complex produced 11,200 Gold Equivalent Ounces (GEO) in the third quarter and up to date has produced 32,200 GEO. The Fox Complex is on track and forecast to produce 45,500 GEO for the full year 2023 which was within their guidance.
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