Callinex Mines Makes New VMS Discovery at Pine Bay Project

Copper and zinc investors are undoubtedly familiar with the town of Flin Flon. It straddles the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, and is in the vicinity of the Flin Flon greenstone belt, one of the largest past-producing VMS belts in the world. 
Currently, the Flin Flon greenstone belt is home to both major companies like HudBay Minerals (TSX:HBM,NYSE:HBM) and junior miners like Callinex Mines (TSXV:CNX,OTCQX:CLLXF). Callinex has a portfolio of projects in the area, and this week announced a new discovery at its Pine Bay project, located 16 kilometers from the town of Flin Flon.
As the company reported Wednesday, drill hole PBM-008, completed as part of a winter drill campaign at Pine Bay, intersected massive sulfides with significant chalcopyrite mineralization over a 4-meter width at a vertical depth of 313 meters, and a subsequent zone with sphalerite stringers. Chalcopyrite is a copper-bearing mineral, while sphalerite is a zinc-bearing mineral.

Callinex also said that a borehole electromagnetic survey completed on PBM-008 identified a highly conductive body, nearly all of which is modeled at depth with a southwest plunge.

Why is this important?

Speaking to the significance of Callinex’s discovery, CEO Max Porterfield explained to the Investing News Network that more than 50 percent of all VMS deposits discovered in the Flin Flon greenstone belt have been advanced to production. That’s because they tend to host high-grade copper, zinc, gold and silver mineralization.
With that in mind, Porterfield believes it’s no surprise that “investors are taking note of the company’s success with the drill bit, which has led to two separate VMS discoveries within the last six months.”
More important, however, is that Callinex’s recent discoveries are “open for expansion,” which is ideal given that both the Pine Bay project and the company’s Flin Flon project are located in close proximity to HudBay’s 777 mine and processing facility, which, as Poterfield noted “is running out of ore.”
But while Porterfield recognizes that the project’s location has contributed to its two recent discoveries, he also credited “the strength of [the company’s] technical team that includes three former PDAC award recipients.” He added, “that really enabled us to attract Resource Capital Funds as our largest shareholder last July.”
As mentioned, Wednesday’s discovery at Pine Bay was made as part of a winter drill campaign at the project. To date, Callinex has drilled four holes totaling roughly 2,967 meters.

“We know that two separate majors — Placer Dome and Inmet Mining — attempted to test this very target that led to our new discovery,” Porterfield explained, also noting, “when Placer was conducting exploration at our Pine Bay project they had a mandate to discovery a 30-million-tonne VMS deposit, and they observed that the drill spacing could allow for a sizable deposit. Aside from previous operators’ ideas, we believe the geological pedigree is very strong in this area.”

What can investors expect moving forward?

As a follow up to the drill results, Callinex is currently looking at “drilling a 80-meter step-out hole and anticipates three to four additional holes are necessary to conduct a first-pass analysis regarding to size and grade potential.”
Looking at the remainder of the drill campaign, Porterfield said that Callinex still has “multiple targets to test, including follow-up drilling on [the] Sourdough deposit area.” Sourdough was a blind discovery made during the company’s 2015 summer drill campaign, during which it intersected 7.4 meters of 1.6 percent copper equivalent.
“Subsequent analysis showed the hole to be located at the top corner of a geophysical conductor, so we are optimistic that additional drilling into the core of this target could identify higher grade mineralization,” Porterfield said.
Regarding the recent drill samples, the company has sent core samples for analysis and hopes to receive the analytical results within the next four weeks.

 
Securities Disclosure: I, Vivien Diniz, hold no direct investment interest in any of the companies mentioned in this article.