Drilling enhances Lookout zone at Niblack property

Vancouver – Recent drilling by Niblack Mining (NIB-V) has intersected 14.94 metres grading 4.68 grams gold and 126 grams silver per tonne, 5.83% copper and 6.23% zinc from the Lookout zone, one of several zones at the company’s namesake volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) project on Prince of Wales Island, southeast Alaska.

Niblack is carrying out a drill program to expand Lookout zone mineralization, primarily directed at targets above the level of a proposed underground exploration adit. The underground exploration program to follow will test for extensions of the zone’s favorable stratigraphy at depth, and also test nearby targets.

The property includes the past-producing Niblack mine, which produced about 50,000 tons grading 5% copper in the early 1900s. The project was also explored by previous operators from the from the 1970s through to the late 1990s, resulting in a historic resource that does not yet comply with National Instrument 43-101 reporting standards.

Recent drilling has expanded the Lookout zone and discovered new areas of high-grade mineralization at the Lookout zone, which is hosted within a widespread VMS system. The aforementioned 14.94-metre intersection from Hole LO-181 resulted from testing of a deeper, less explored part of the zone.

A follow-up hole drilled 38.1-metres beneath Hole LO-181 intersected three closely spaced zones of massive sulphide and stringer mineralization. Highlights include an 8.35-metre interval grading 5.19 grams gold, 37 grams silver, 2.99% copper and 4.71% zinc, separated by an 11.5-metre interval of mafic dyke from a 4.63-metre interval grading 5.26 grams gold, 33 grams silver, 1.46% copper and 10.86% zinc.

The drill campaign also tested a near-surface gold oxide zone at Lookout, with Hole LO-176 returning 13.3 metres grading 13.09 grams gold and 129 grams silver. Hole LO-177, hole drilled 30 metres up-dip of Hole LO-176, returned 29.99 metres grading 7.94 grams gold and 42 grams silver, including 4.75 metres of 30.92 grams gold and 72 grams silver.

A second zone of mixed oxide/sulphide was intersected at greater depth by Hole LO-177, and returned 4.06 grams gold and 22 grams silver over 31.58 metres, including 5.49 metres of 9.99 grams gold and 22 grams silver. The gold-oxide zone is believed to be the base-metal leached, near-surface expression of the sulphide zones found at depth.

Niblack is in the process of obtaining permits for its proposed underground program, and is constructing an access road to the site from tidewater. The underground exploration program will test the Lookout zone, a series of moderately to steeply dipping massive sulphide lenses that have been intersected to depths of 485 metres. The program will also test other targets, including the Mammoth zone located near the start of the proposed 914-metre-long main adit.