Eldorado Reports On Operations Progress
VANCOUVER - Eldorado Gold Corporation reported on results from brownfields exploration drilling programs in Quebec, Greece, and Turkey, including an update on the newly-discovered Ormaque zone at Lamaque. Additionally, the Company is providing a brief update on COVID-19.
Highlights: At Lamaque, new high-grade drill intercepts from the C2, C6 and C7 zones highlight the resource growth potential of the Triangle deposit; in addition, numerous new intercepts continue to grow the recent Ormaque zone discovery; At Efemcukuru, drill results have confirmed continuity of high gold grades within mineralized shoots at the Kokarpinar Middle and Kokarpinar South target areas, advancing this vein system to resource conversion drilling stage; and At Stratoni, a new discovery of a lower massive sulfide lens of over 20 meters estimated true thickness just below current mine development provides significant resource growth potential, to be further tested in the upcoming surface exploration drilling program.
“These results from our brownfields programs continue to demonstrate the outstanding exploration potential at our operations”, said George Burns, President and CEO. “I am particularly pleased with the outcome of the step out drilling at C2, C6 and C7, which highlight the potential for further expansion of the Triangle deposit, and with the new results from the Ormaque zone. In Turkey, we had solid results at Efemcukuru and we continue to focus on extending the life of that asset through further exploration.”
The 2020 exploration drilling program at the Triangle deposit is focused on resource expansion in the lower deposit, particularly in the C6 and C7 zones and their splays. 17,822 meters of drilling have been completed year to date to the end of October, including 6 drillholes from surface and 13 drillholes from underground platforms at the Triangle mine. New results, including several previously unreleased intercepts from late 2019.
These include: At C2, drillhole TM-20-333A intersected 3.0m @ 6.84 g/t Au approximately 200 meters east of the current resources. A second drillhole on C2 (TU-325-094) intersected 3.1m @ 15.99 g/t Au (21.37 g/t Au uncapped) in a stepout approximately 50 m east of the current resources. Additional drilling is currently ongoing to further test extensions of C2; At C6, new high-grade intercepts highlight the potential of the C6-20 splay zone, including 2.9m @ 16.18 g/t Au (20.76 g/t Au uncapped; drillhole TU-0325-094) and 2.4m @ 9.05 g/t Au (53.03 g/t Au uncapped; drillhole TM-19-330W01). The latter drillhole also intersected 3.6m @ 13.61 g/t Au within the C6-60 splay zone; At C7, drilling has mainly targeted step-outs along the high-grade eastern edge of the deposit. Results to date include intercepts of 3.15 m @ 17.00 g/t Au (53.05 g/t Au uncapped; drillhole TM-19-330) and 3.5m @ 11.33 g/t Au (13.06 g/t Au uncapped; drillhole TU-0325-094). Results from an additional 8 drillholes completed in 2020 are pending; and Gold grades for drillhole intervals listed in this release are capped at 40 g/t Au for Triangle deposit holes and 70 g/t Au for the Ormaque zone. Drill hole intercepts are drillhole lengths; where sufficient geological control exists, estimated true thicknesses of mineralized zones.
Resource expansion drilling is ongoing with one underground rig and two surface rigs currently active. Additionally, resource conversion drilling of Triangle inferred resources is now complete for nearly all of C4 and the upper two-thirds of C5. Two underground drill rigs are continuing delineation drilling on the remainder of the inferred resources at C5.
2020 drilling to date at the recently-discovered Ormaque zone totals 12,236 meters in 16 drillholes. The zone has now been defined over an area measuring approximately 650 meters east-west by 400 meters north-south, and to a depth of 550 meters. The zone remains open to the north, east, and at depth.
Significant assay results from the Ormaque zone since the discovery was announced in January include: 15.85m @ 7.47 g/t Au (8.95 g/t Au uncapped) in drillhole LS-19-021; this intercept is within a wider zone of veining roughly 30 meters thick. It is one of the deepest intersections to date at Ormaque and highlights potential extensions of the zone at depth and to the east; 6.30m @ 17.48 g/t Au (29.06 g/t Au uncapped) in drillhole LS-20-028, is also on the east side of the deposit and corresponds to the extension of the previously reported wide intercept in drillhole LS-19-009 (27.3m @ 10.20 g/t Au.); and 6.60m @ 34.52 g/t Au (64.63 g/t Au uncapped) in drillhole LS-20-030A is associated with a strong concentration of breccia veins with associated tourmaline alteration.
Drilling since the discovery was announced in January 2020 includes both stepout holes to the east and infill holes to better establish continuity of the thick high-grade intercepts. The numerous high-grade intercepts from this drilling are associated with extensional and hybrid extension-shear quartz-carbonate-tourmaline veins and adjacent tourmaline-altered wall rocks. Vein contact measurements from oriented drillcore, together with correlations between drillhole intercepts, indicate that most of the mineralized zones dip gently to moderately to the west-south-west. The vein system occurs within the “C porphyry” diorite (the same host rock as the Sigma mine), and is spacially associated with steeply NNW-dipping ductile-brittle shear zones, which are themselves weakly mineralized. A north-south representative cross section through the Ormaque zone shows the distribution of some of the new intercepts and preliminary interpretations of geological control on mineralized bodies.
At the Efemcukuru mine in Turkey, 8,610 meters of exploration drilling have been completed to date in 2020 on the Kokarpinar Middle and Kokarpinar South vein systems in 28 drillholes (Figure 6), from which results have been received for 21 drillholes. These include both delineation holes to better establish grade and continuity of existing inferred resources, and stepout drillholes from these inferred resources. At both Kokarpinar Middle and Kokarpinar South, several new drillhole intercepts contain significantly higher grades than were obtained from previous nearby drillholes and are in the current resource model, including: At Kokarpinar South, intercepts of 2.6m @ 22.52 g/t Au (KV-731), 0.55m @ 51.60 g/t Au (KV-735) and 5.1m @ 11.33 g/t Au (KV-746); At Kokarpinar Middle, intercepts of 3.25m @ 32.18 g/t Au (KV-732) and 1.95m @ 36.92 g/t Au (KV-738). Resource expansion drilling will continue for the remainder of the year at Kokarpinar and a resource conversion drilling program is planned for 2021.
At the Stratoni mine in Greece 13 exploration drillholes (2,582 meters) have been drilled to date in 2020. Due to limited drill platform availability, all of these holes were drilled from two underground locations from which extensions to the Mavres Petres orebody were targeted and deeper stratigraphic levels in the host marble unit for new massive sulfide lenses were tested. Six of these drillholes discovered a new massive sulfide lens of substantial thickness (Table 4, Figure 8). Highlights include: Drillhole MP0973 which intersected 39.0m @ 6.14% Zn, 5.28% Pb, and 128.8 g/t Ag; and Drillhole MP0978, which intersected 54.9m @ 12.5% Zn, 5.0 % Pb, and 122.8 g/t Ag.
This new massive sulfide lens occurs near the base of the host marble and is structurally intact with little faulting along contacts, in contrast to the faulted contacts and fault dismemberment typical of the massive sulphide lenses along the upper marble contact. All planned holes in the underground resource expansion drilling program have now been completed and stepout drilling is scheduled to resume in mid-November 2020 from newly-permitted surface drillsites.