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Northisle drilling underway

“Each step along the way there are things that can go wrong, so there is no guarantee”
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BLACK PRESS PHOTO Map showing the area under consideration by Northisle for their Hushamu copper and gold mining project.

Test drilling is underway for a prospective mining project on the North Island.

“We did raise about $1,500,000,” said Jack McClintock President and Chief Executive Officer of Northisle Copper and Gold Inc. The funds were needed for additional drilling on Northisle’s Hushamu and Red Dog projects.

“We are currently carrying out a drilling project at our zone Hushamu project,” said McClintock. “We expect that program to continue through to mid or late July.”

McClintock added they are also currently completing their engineering study, which is called a ‘Preliminary Economic Assessment’. “It’s an engineering study that gives a rough idea for the potential economics and project upsets.”

Both Hushamu and Red Dog sites are included in Northisle’s North Island Project, which consists of approximately 33,000 hectares of mineral claims covering a 50 by eight kilometre area northwest of the now closed Island Copper Mine.

Drilling at Hushamu is now being done to improve the quality of the resource.

“We drill the holes and we analyze them for copper, gold, and rhenium. It gives a higher level of confidence on the resource estimate,” said McClintock.

He added the results from the drilling won’t be available until mid-August, as it takes about a month from the end of the drilling project for the results to be compiled. Northisle has already completed additional drilling on their Red Dog site, and the results from that drilling project will be available by the end of July.

“We did one exploration hole at Red Dog,” said McClintock. “We wanted to test one of our targets to the south, then we moved the drill to the Hushamu site.”

If testing on these projects is successful, it could lead to a mine similar in size of the old Island Copper Mine that employed over 900 people and closed in 1995.

However, McClintock added this is just the first step in a long process before any mining can be realized.

He said once the Preliminary Economic Assessment becomes available in July, Northisle will move into a feasibility study that could take anywhere from 18 to 25 months. A permitting phase, which is where Northisle applies for the necessary permits, would follow and take an additional 24 to 36 months to complete.

“Then there would be a decision to build a mine, and building would take 24 to 36 months to complete,” said McClintock. “Each step along the way there are things that can go wrong, so there is no guarantee.”

Quick facts from Northisle’s website www.northisle.ca: The Red Dog Property hosts a current indicated resource of 23.6 million tonnes grading 0.32 per cent Cu and 0.46 gpt gold associated with a quartz breccia developed adjacent to a quartz feldspar porphyry intrusion.Red Dog’s close proximity to the Hushamu Deposit makes it a potential source of higher grade feed should subsequent engineering studies show the Hushamu deposit to be economically viable.



Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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