Imperial, Newcrest confirm high-grade mineralization at Red Chris

Exploration drilling has confirmed the continuity of high-grade mineralization at the Red Chris copper-gold mine in northwest British Columbia, 80 km south of Dease Lake and 1,700 km from Vancouver. The mine is a joint venture between Imperial Metals (TSX: III) and Australian miner Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM). Newcrest holds a 70% stake and Imperial a 30% interest. Newcrest is the mine operator. The drilling program was conducted on the East zone of the 231-sq.-km property, below the existing mine, and was designed to gather geological, geotechnical and metallurgical data to support future studies for underground block cave mining. “The deep drilling on the East zone by Newcrest was a followup to the densest drilling we did on the zone,” Brian Kynoch, Imperial’s president, said in an interview.