Now the financing for a combined C$30M+ has been completed, Integra Resources (ITR.V) can now focus on its ongoing exploration programs again. After having focused on the lower grade zones which culminated in a total resource north of 4 million ounces gold-equivalent and an excellent PEA, Integra’s Summer 2020 program has been chasing the higher grade zones that have been known to be on the property.
The company also completed seven holes at War Eagle, of which three holes have already been published. With 34.14 meters containing 12.37 g/t AuEq (of which almost 11 g/t of ‘real’ gold and almost 4 ounces of silver per tonne to make up for the rest of the gold-equivalent grade) including an ultra-high grade zone of almost 74 g/t gold and 817 g/t silver over almost 4.3 meters and 2 meters containing 9.5 g/t AuEq in the same hole, the first few holes at War Eagle look very promising. According to CEO Salamis, the higher grade War Eagle zones show excellent continuity over a vertical depth of 100 meters, while the deposit remains open.
And it’s not just War Eagle that yielded high-grade gold (and silver). Drilling at Florida Mountain also confirmed the presence of narrower but high-grade gold zones. With intervals of 1.22 meters and 1.52 meters some of the mineralized intervals appear to be relatively narrow, but the grades make up for that with respectively 13.1 g/t AuEq and 29.45 g/t AuEq. Considering these are sulphide zones the recovery rate for the silver (in excess of 850 g/t in the 1.52 meter intercept) should be around 80% and provide a really nice kicker to the metals mix.
In fact, these grades and widths are an excellent reminder of the rock that was mined in the good old days at Florida Mountain. Some companies get excited when they discover a road in a jungle that may or may not be meaningful (looking at you, Aurania Resources), but as mining companies are supposed to find metals rather than serving as the thesis subject of a PhD in History, we prefer to see bonanza gold and silver grades over anything else.
Considering War Eagle is just 10 kilometers by road from the proposed processing facility, Integra’s milling scenario just gained momentum. Whereas the original PEA only took a 2,000 tonnes per day processing plant into account which barely contributed anything to the NPV (just a few dozen millions of Canadian Dollars), the more higher-grade rock Integra finds, the more feasible it becomes to build a processing plant with a higher capacity to unlock additional economies of scale.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Integra Resources. Integra is a sponsor of the website.
