Alba Minerals Resources plc has completed its planned drilling programme, doubling the number of drill holes for greater depths at the Thule Black Sands (TBS) ilmenite project in Greenland.
DRILL FENCES
Through its subsidiary White Eagle Resources Ltd, the company aims to expand and upgrade the resources defined during the 2018 drilling campaign.
A total of 30 fences of drill holes over 8km were planned from southern tip of the licence to the north.
The drill fences were located in between the fences drilled in the 2018 campaign, giving a spacing of 125m between all fence lines.
DRILL HOLES
Alba said it had planned to drill 125 holes but completed 249 for 550m.
These included deeper holes within the 2018 fences together with some in-fill drilling in the known higher-grade portions of the licence.
Drilling was by tractor-mounted sonic drill rig to pierce the permafrost, which allowed drilling to reach 6m in some places, with average depths of 2.2m.
This exceeded the maximum depth of 1m reached in 2018.
Alba also completed aerial a photogrammetry drone survey and bathymetry survey of the offshore area, to assist in mine planning and the location of infrastructure.
MINING LICENCE
Alba chief operating officer Mark Austin said that penetration of the permafrost by every hole should have a positive impact on the overall level of resources at TBS.
“While we have now comprehensively drilled the higher grade southern portion of the
licence, there remains further upside potential in the central and northern areas which we
intend to tackle in the same way during next year’s drilling season.
“A significant upgrade in the defined resources at TBS will enable us to move forward rapidly with scoping level studies to assess the economic exploitation of the project and to plan for the EIA/SIA work which will need to be completed in 2022 as a precursor to the application for a mining licence.”
The drill samples will be assayed before a competent person begins resource estimation work.