North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Osisko Metals Inc. April 26 announced it cut 32 meters averaging 20.28% zinc and 12.02% lead in the X25 deposit at its Pine Point project in Northwest Territories.

Situated 42 kilometers (26 miles) east of the town of Hay River, Pine Point is home to a former mine operated by Cominco (now Teck Resources) that produced roughly 14 billion lb of zinc and 4 billion lb of lead from around 64 million metric tons of ore during a roughly 24-year span beginning in 1964.

Osisko is investigating the establishment of a new operation to mine the zinc and lead in deposits across a more than 50-kilometer- (31 miles) trend on the property.

According to a calculation updated for the PEA, Pine Point hosts 12.9 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 4.56% zinc and 1.73% lead, plus 37.6 million metric tons of inferred resource grading 4.89% zinc and 1.91% lead.

The 2021 drill program includes infill drilling to upgrade inferred resources to the higher confidence indicated category, and a hydrogeological program designed to characterize water flow throughout the host dolomites on the property.

In March, Osisko reported high-grade results from four holes drilled at the R190 deposit at West Zone, which is at the southwest end of the property. Highlights from these holes include: 27.5 meters averaging 31.15% zinc and 11.57% in R190-21-PP-001; and 25.8 meters averaging 24.39% zinc and 14.74% lead in R190-21-PP-002.

Both were infill holes drilled near the center of the R190 deposit.

The latest batch of results are from two holes drilled at X25, another deposit at Pine Point's West Zone. Highlights from this drilling include 21 meters averaging 9.4% zinc and 3.76% lead in hole X25-21-PP-001; and 32 meters averaging 20.28% zinc and 12.02% lead in X25-21-PP-002.

Osisko says both holes met expectations with respect to the current resource block model and provided infill spacing required in their immediate area of the X25 deposit for indicated resource definition under the 2020 PEA.

"Once more, I am impressed to see the high-grade mineralization being confirmed or surpassed within the western prismatic deposits at Pine Point," said Osisko Metals Chairman and CEO Robert Wares. "Importantly, many of these deposits blend laterally into tabular mineralization and remain open along strike. These will be a priority for follow-up drilling this summer as part of our resource expansion program, as will areas of mineralized orphan holes across the property."

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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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