Ashton reports new find at Otish

Vancouver-based Ashton Mining of Canada (ACA-T) has discovered a second kimberlitic-type body in the Otish Mountains region of north-central Quebec.

A hole drilled vertically into a geophysical anomaly, 1 km south of the initial discovery, intersected ultramafic igneous rock with characteristics suggestive of kimberlite under 18 metres of overburden. The hole was shut down in kimberlitic material at a depth of 101 metres. A second hole, drilled from the same site at an angle of minus 60 degrees, intersected 11 metres of kimberlitic-looking material at a down-hole depth of 22-35 metres. This was followed by 70 metres of mainly gneiss with lesser intervals of kimberlitic rock before the hole ended at a depth of 105 metres.

Two other magnetic anomalies were drill-tested during this first round of drilling and were explained by magnetite-rich zones in the gneissic bedrock.

Core samples from the two new discoveries are undergoing petrographic analysis to determine if the rock unit is kimberlite. Microdiamond tests at Ashton’s Vancouver laboratory will follow, with results expected late in the fourth quarter.