Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT) has uncovered more “wide zones and high grades” as it advances towards a resource update at its copper-dominant Horden Lake Project in Québec.
Drilling undertaken in the northern resource area has intersected a shallow wide zone of copper and nickel mineralisation, returning results like 39.7m @ 1.04% copper equivalent from 75.5m including 12.9m @ 2.25% from 98.1m in hole HN-24-119.
These new intercepts also contain “significant” precious metals and expand the northern section of the open pit deposit area, according to Pivotal.
Hole HN-24-119 showed grades of up to 0.23 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 0.19g/t palladium, 401 parts per million cobalt, 0.03g/t platinum and 7.4g/t silver.
The existing resource of 28 million tonnes @ 1.5% copper equivalent contains just copper, nickel, gold and palladium.
Multi-element assays have only been taken over a portion of the Horden Lake deposit, and Pivotal has noted previously that abundant cobalt, silver and platinum exist but are not modelled.
Gold is also constrained to only a portion of the deposit yet is diluted by 100% of the tonnes, meaning the effective grade is understated.
Pivotal says these byproducts are typically payable metals in copper and nickel concentrates and represent “significant upside” to the average grade of the deposit.
Preliminary metallurgical testwork demonstrates the potential for good recoveries across the payable metals in the Horden Lake deposit. Historical test work produced copper concentrates grading 22-30% copper at recoveries ranging from 85-96%.
Meanwhile, Pivotal says the results from the final five holes of the 2024 drilling campaign continue to demonstrate the presence of high grades at shallow depths and the continuity of the wide mineralised zones along the target contact zone hosting the Horden Lake deposit, contributing to the expanding resource envelope.
This was demonstrated through intercepts of 36.9m @ 0.85% copper equivalent from 11.3m, including 6.4m @ 2.52% from 41.3m; and 3m @ 1.23% from 61.8m in hole HN-24-118.
Managing Director Ivan Fairhall says these final holes “cap off a very successful maiden exploration program”.
“We have established multiple areas where the mineralisation extends beyond the resource boundary, and the project remains open for further growth,” he says.
“We are particularly enthused by the emerging regional potential to contribute resource growth which will be complementary to the already significant Horden Lake deposit.
“Our attention turns to fully evaluating these exploration results as part of our resource update, in parallel to planning our next exploration campaign on the project to capitalise on the significant upside demonstrated in 2024.”
The recently completed 7,097m, 34-hole maiden drilling program was designed to expand the resource, confirm significant precious metals content and provide samples for metallurgical testwork and ore characterisation studies.
Pivotal says downhole electromagnetic results also indicate mineralisation continues well beyond the current drill tested limits, providing further exploration upside.
Horden Lake extends for more than 2.1km along strike, and has been intersected at its deepest point 540m deep and 700m down-dip along the footwall contact zone.
Previous step-out drilling has demonstrated the continuity between the two open pit resource areas. Results released in September show multiple wide zones at shallow depths in hole HN-24-123, which provides the link between the two existing resource blocks.
Pivotal plans to continue to broaden its search along the 3.2km-long contact zone, as well as investigate other regional anomalies, to target new areas for resource growth at Horden Lake.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Pivotal Metals
