Blackstone strikes high grade cobalt and gold in its first drill hole at Little Gem
Sample of mineralisation from Little Gem assaying 6.2% cobalt and 46 g/t gold.
Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) intersected 3% cobalt and 44 grams per tonne gold in its first drill hole from its maiden exploration program at its Little Gem project in Canada’s British Columbia region.
Results from the maiden drilling program are consistent with historical underground drilling from the program with the first drill hole intersecting 4.3m at 1% cobalt and 15g/t gold, including a 1.1m interval with 3% cobalt and 4.4g/t gold.
According to Blackstone, the first hole only tested the upper portion of its target.
“An outstanding result from our first drill hole at Little Gem,” Blackstone managing director Scott Williamson said.
“These initial results confirm Little Gem as one of the highest-grade cobalt-gold projects in the world located within a region completely unexplored for cobalt,” Mr Williamson added.
Historic underground drilling produced 1.8m at 2.4% cobalt and 112g/t gold, while previous adit channel sampling at the project uncovered 1.5m at 5.4% cobalt and 26g/t gold.
Winter weather conditions in the area halted the maiden drilling program which the company will resume in the June quarter to follow up the result and test mineralised extensions.
Prospectors discovered Little Gem in the 1930s, resulting in the development of three adits. However, little recent exploration has been carried out at the project.
Blackstone entered an agreement to purchase Little Gem in July last year and acquired more ground near the project in early November, resulting in 48km of untested strike potential and 335 square kilometres of landholding in the area.
As part of its earlier due diligence, Blackstone uncovered cobalt grading 5.7% and 4.4%.
The company’s second target is the Roxey gold prospect which is about 1.5km from the Little Gem prospect. Due diligence at Roxey found rock chip samples assaying up to 24g/t gold, 1.9% copper and 24g/t silver.
Meanwhile, the Jewel prospect has revealed up to 98g/t gold and 3.2% copper in rock chip samples from due diligence activities.
Blackstone’s share price ended trade up more than 22% at A$0.59.