On Wednesday, Tower Resources, Ltd (OTC:TWRFF) (TSXV:TWR) announced it had received the final assays from its six-hole delineation program, which was drilled in April at the company’s Rabbit North property near Kamloops, British Columbia.
The assays from the first two holes of the program (028 and 029) were announced on June 22 and provided results that surpassed its initial discovery hole (RN21-026). The information Tower has gleaned from the combination of all six assays, however, provided the company with the information necessary to work toward efficiently and quickly proving its resource through its next drilling program.
The Process: The first four-hole exploratory program, completed in December 2021, resulted in a gold discovery, in an area subsequently termed the Lightning Zone. The follow-up six-hole program was drilled with the intention of determining the structure, in terms of dip, strike and thickness, of the mineralization.
The company was successful in its endeavor and hit significant mineralization repeatedly in five out of six holes, with the results substantially increasing the success of its next program. Importantly, Tower has been able to establish the structure and orientation of its resource after drilling just 10 holes.
The Results: Holes 30, 31 and 33 were drilled northeast of the discovery hole, toward historical hole 97-07 and the assays returned with significant, if not high-grade, results.
- Hole 030 yielded 1.78 grams per ton of gold (g/t Au) over 26.5 meters, within which 10.5 meters yielded 3.40 g/t Au, followed at depth by 6.0 m of 1.71 g/t Au.
- Hole 031 hit two mineralized zones, with one zone yielding 2.09 grams g/t Au over 22 meters, within which 4 meters yielded 6.27 g/t Au. Another zone yielded 1.94 g/t Au over six meters.
- Hole 033 intersected significant mineralization, yielding 69.3 g/t (2.01 oz/ton) Au over 1 meter. It’s important to note, hole 033 is only 200 meters southwest along strike from historical hole 97-07, which intercepted an average of 12.4 g/t Au over 10 meters and, therefore, may be related.
- The assays for hole 032 were not disclosed in Wednesday’s press release, but the results are likely similar to the lesser mineralization found in hole 027.
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Why It Matters: While intersecting pervasive mineralization, the results from the six holes, methodically drilled in scissor fashion, have allowed Tower to delineate the structure of its resource. While holes 028 and 029 showed the dip of its resource is essentially vertical, and the thickness is approximately 40 meters, the results from its subsequent four holes proved that its resource is Y-shaped, determining the strike:
The Lightening Zone’s “main branch appears to strike north-northwest, but the targeted northeast trend is also well mineralized and appears to be a major splay structure, doubling the known strike length of the gold system,”
Prior to Tower receiving the assays from all six holes, the company assumed the strike ran northeast, but after reviewing the results it has determined a much larger mineralized structure.
“It’s still early days at the Lightning Zone, so some surprises are to be expected, in this case a positive one. Despite not knowing the strike of the gold zone, we got strong hits in five of six holes, delineated a major splay structure that effectively doubles the strike length of the gold system, extended the mineralization in both structures by 100 m and showed that the prime discovery area is wide open to the southeast,” said Stuart Averill, P.Geo., a Director of the Company, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
Also noteworthy, is that Tower has confirmed its strike at 50 meter intervals, which may demonstrate the potential to prove the structure stretches further than what is already known.
What’s Next: Tower plans to begin its next drilling program in August and will target the main branch of the Lightning Zone. The company plans to drill north-northwest and south-southeast of the prime discovery.
“Knowing the strike, dip and true thickness of the Lightening Zone will increase the predictability of our future drilling,” Tower CEO Joe Dhami told Benzinga. “Our upcoming program is being designed to begin very soon.”
Interesting Fact: In mining, location is everything and Tower’s Rabbit North property is located between New Gold, Inc’s (AMEX:NGD) New Afton underground copper and gold mine and Teck Resources, Ltd.’s (NYSE:TECK) Highland Valley open pit copper and molybdenum mine.
