FireFly Metals Ltd (ASX: FFM) has obtained further outstanding wide high-grade copper- gold intersections from its drilling programme at the Green Bay Copper-Gold Project in Canada.
There are two distinct styles of mineralisation at the Ming underground mine at Green Bay: one comprises the upper copper-gold rich Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) lenses, which sits above the other style, a broad copper stringer zone known as the Footwall Zone (FWZ).
In November 2023 the company commenced mining of a 1,500m underground drill drive to enable exploration for down-plunge extensions of mineralisation outside of the current resource, which currently stands at 39.2Mt @ 2.1% for 811,000t CuEq.
The ]assay results from the first five holes drilled from the development drill drive have returned exceptional results, with significant intersections of both the upper high-grade copper-gold VMS zone and the underlying broad-scale copper FWZ. Intersections in the VMS zone included 9.1m @ 5.4% CuEq and 13.0m @ 4.4% CuEq. The copper stringer style FWZ mineralisation also continued to contain multiple high-grade zones, including 12.0m @ 4.8% CuEq within a wider halo of 37.4m @ 2.7% CuEq in hole MUG24-016.
Managing Director Steve Parsons said the results reported from the exploration drive are significant because they demonstrate strong and continuous VMS and FWZ-style mineralisation between the end of the current resource and the 460m step-out exploration hole (R17-25ab) that contained intersections including 6.3m @ 5.9% CuEq in the VMS and 102m @ 1.7% Cu in the FWZ (refer ASX release dated 16/01/24). This sets the scene for a significant resource increase, with the update scheduled for completion in the September Quarter.
“These are exceptional results with high grades and strong widths well beyond the existing resource boundary,” he said.
“This means they are entirely consistent with our strategy to keep growing the resource.
“We are also accelerating our growth campaign, with drilling now taking place from the underground exploration drive, which makes it faster, cheaper and more accurate, and a third rig will start in the next few weeks.”
Funds from the recent $52 million capital raising will be used to accelerate the growth program. A third rig is planned to arrive at site in May. This rig will be utilised to fast-track both resource drilling and in-mine downhole geophysical targeting.