Drill holes OTD20-001 and 002 have been positioned along the open-ended, 3.5km corridor of alteration and epithermal mineralisation defined by the Ohra, Takamine and Urushi historic mines, where mining was halted in 1943 by the government-imposed moratorium.
Historic production records indicate the presence of high-grade mineralisation at the Ohra and Urushi Mines, including 21,000oz mined at grades greater than 20g/t gold at Ohra, and an ore shoot in the number 2 vein in the Urushi Mine which carried grades between 50 to 100g/t1.
Drill hole OTD20-001 targeted extensions of quartz veins mined at Urushi and intersected several zones of quartz vein, quartz-vein stockwork and brecciated quartz vein along its length. An initial batch of samples from the upper part of the drill hole were dispatched in mid-October and the remaining samples have now also been dispatched. Currently, heavy sample volumes are being experienced by ALS labs in Canada, and the final results of OTD20-001 are not expected until early in 2021.
Difficult drilling conditions, including clay-rich shear zones, slowed down drilling in the upper portion of OTD20-001. Following the easing of border restrictions, the company's drill team members were able to re-enter Japan to take over drilling operations in October; promptly completing the drill hole.
OTD20-002 received the required government approvals on November 25th and drilling commenced within hours of receiving this notification. OTD20-002 is targeting the down-dip continuation of the ore shoot mined at Ohra prior to 1943 and is expected to drill to a depth of approximately 550m.
Work programmes completed earlier this year within the project show historically mined quartz vein mineralisation coincides with gold and pathfinder element in soil anomalies, linear vertically-extensive CSAMT resistivity anomalies, and northeast and northwest structural intersections inferred from processed gravity data. The planned drill holes are targeting the down-dip extensions of high-grade mineralisation mined in shallowly developed workings coincident with the geochemical and geophysical anomalies.
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