Abcourt drills Vendome property

Diamond drilling has expanded the Barvallee zone of silver-zinc mineralization at the Vendome property, 60 km northeast of Val d’Or, Que.

Abcourt Mines (ABI-M) wrapped up a 9-hole, 1,500-metre program and released results from four holes, highlights of which include: * Hole 3, which intersected 1.3 metres (from 91.5 metres) grading 92.7 grams silver per tonne, 2.3% copper and 4.5% zinc; and

* Hole 7, which cut 1.6 metres (from 78 metres) of 115.2 grams silver, 3.05 grams gold, 0.5% copper and 12.9% zinc, plus an additional 2.3 metres (from 85.5 metres) of 32 grams silver, 1.78 grams gold, 0.4% copper and 4.4% zinc.

Each hole intersected two bands of sulphides. The first band occurs in silicified andesite or rhyolite, whereas the second is in highly siliceous, fine-grained tuffs and rhyolite.

“It seems we’re getting all the conditions necessary for a massive sulphide ore deposit,” says Abcourt’s president, Renaud Hinse. “We’re getting the rock type, the alteration, the sulphide distribution, the values in the sulphide, and good widths. We think we’re sitting close to something, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

Polymetallic mineralization on the property is found in siliceous felsic rocks such as rhyolites, often with blue quartz eyes, or in fine-grained siliceous tuffs, in east-westerly striking zones that dip steeply to the north.

Since the 1950s, work by various companies has delineated three copper-zinc-silver-gold deposits on the property, namely Vendome, Barvallee and Belfort. Abcourt plans to carry out a down-hole geophysical survey, with one target area being the area between the Vendome and Barvallee deposits where some mineralization has been intersected.

Abcourt is working on a $100,000 prefeasibility study, which is considering construction of a 1,000-tonne-per-day mine-mill complex for the joint development of the Vendome property and Abcourt’s nearby dormant Abcourt-Barvue silver-zinc mine.