Coeur Mining Inc. Feb. 17 reported that the 47,575 meters of drilling completed in 173 holes at Kensington during 2020 nearly replaced the 124,867 ounces of gold produced and has positioned the Southeast Alaska operation for future reserve growth.

Going into 2021, Kensington had 1.68 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 0.197 oz/t (331,000 oz) gold; down slightly from the 1.68 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 0.218 oz/t (366,000 oz) gold a year earlier.

Part of a companywide focus on increased exploration spending, Coeur invested roughly US$10.2 million on resource expansion, upgrade, and exploration drilling at Kensington during 2020, a 34% increase over 2019.

The company said this drilling tapped high-grade gold mineralization at upper Kensington Zone 30, Raven, Elmira, and Eureka, all of which are located near existing infrastructure and represent new potential resource growth areas.

One hole drilled from the southern portion of upper Kensington Zone 30 cut multiple high-grade intercepts, including 1.6 meters of 54.2 g/t gold; 1.4 meters of 29.8 g/t gold; 1.2 meters of 25 g/t gold; and 0.4 meters of 68.8 g/t.

One hole drilled at Northern Belle, which is the hanging wall structure of upper Kensington, cut 0.3 meters averaging 186.9 g/t gold.

Coeur's top priorities at Kensington for the second half of 2020 included underground expansion drilling at Elmira and Johnson; surface expansion drilling of upper Raven and Johnson; step out drilling at Big Lake, a new target southeast of the current mineralized zones; and infill drilling at Elmira.

The underground drilling at Elmira and Johnson was completed from a new development drift established during the fourth quarter of 2020.

One hole drilled at Raven cut 0.6 meters averaging 57.8 g/t gold.

Highlights from drilling at Eureka include 2.2 meters averaging 43.9 g/t gold; one meter averaging 57.2 g/t gold; and 5.1 meters averaging 30.4 g/t gold.

One hole drilled at Elmira cut 0.3 meters averaging 169.5 g/t gold; and a 2020 hole at Jualin cut 0.4 meters averaging 124.4 g/t gold.

Aside from replacing the reserves mined during 2020, this drilling added to the resources at Kensington.

In addition to the reserves, the Southeast Alaska mine entered 2021 with 3.59 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.231 oz/t (830,000 oz) gold; and 1.6 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.247 oz/t (294,000 oz) gold.

Coeur expects to increase its exploration investment at Kensington during 2021, giving more priority to infill drilling and its resource conversion program, while also maintaining a similar focus on resource expansion drilling year-over-year.

The company began the year the way it ended 2020, with two underground rigs targeting Elmira and Johnson from the new development drift.

Additionally, interpretation and modeling of the 2020 assay results from Elmira, Eureka, Johnson, Northern Belle and Raven drilling are currently underway. Once the results are interpreted, Coeur plans to add a third underground core rig to continue expansion drilling on the highest priority near-mine targets.

Companywide exploration record

The increased exploration at Kensington was part of a record year of exploration spending for Coeur.

Across its portfolio of North American assets, the Chicago-based mining company invested US$50.6 million in exploration during 2020, a 68% increase over the previous year. This largest ever exploration spending by the company included roughly 238,700 meters of drilling that helped boost its gold reserves by 22% and silver reserves by 42%.

"We launched several aggressive drilling campaigns in 2020 in the pursuit of potential mine life extensions and high-return organic growth opportunities. Our efforts were successful on multiple fronts, as demonstrated by significant increases in reserves at Rochester and Palmarejo which led to the largest level of total reserves in our history," said Coeur Mining President and CEO Mitchell Krebs. "Additionally, our results at Kensington, Silvertip and Crown were particularly encouraging, and represent future growth opportunities for the company."

Going into 2021, Coeur's five mines – Kensington (Alaska), Silvertip (British Columbia), Palmarejo (Mexico), Rochester (Nevada) and Wharf (South Dakota) – hosted 506.6 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 0.006 ounces per ton (3.12 million oz) gold, 0.51 oz/t (259.5 million oz) silver, 8.21% (296.1 million pounds) zinc and 5.36% (193.2 million lb) lead.

Coeur intends to set a new companywide exploration record in 2021.

Mitchell Krebs

"We plan to increase our exploration investment again this year with the goals of further extending our mine lives, generating more new discoveries and driving higher returns on invested capital in coming years," Krebs added.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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