Exploration Drilling Program Ongoing At The Hercules Property
TORONTO - Hercules Metals Corp. reported on the exploration drilling program at its Hercules Property in western Idaho. A total of 4,600m have been drilled in 6 completed, 3 abandoned and 3 in progress drill holes ranging up to 722m in depth. A potential trend of elevated hypogene copper-silver enrichment appears to be emerging, currently being tested in two directions: 1) Two drill rigs stepping to the northeast and southwest from the 2023 discovery area to test the potential trend of elevated copper-silver, immediately below the Triassic-Jurassic unconformity. 2) A third drill rig is reconnaissance drilling compelling new targets across the property. A large fault zone, referred to as the "BN Fault," had impacted drilling progress in holes HER-24-01, -05, -06, -07, -09, and -09b. However, the inferred geometry of the BN Fault has now been mapped in 3D, which enables future drill holes to focus on areas with more favourable ground conditions away from the fault.
The Company is planning to enhance productivity by adding a deep RC drill rig with an effective depth capacity of ~1,200m. Roads are being widened to allow access for a larger rig which has indicated availability in early September.
Chris Paul, CEO and Director, said, "Having drilled over 1 kilometer of strike along the Leviathan Porphyry this year has given us a much better understanding of certain key structural controls, which better guides our targeting of hypogene enrichment. Blind drilling has its logistical challenges, but new information is gained from each hole, which allows us to increase efficiency moving forward. Drilling is now vectoring toward the potential feeder structures for the hypogene enrichment event, which added copper and silver to the shallowest part of the system, beneath the unconformity.
At the same time, we are actively working to increase productivity by avoiding damaged fault zones and securing a deep RC drill rig to supplement the program with pre-collars for the core rigs as well as select RC-only drill holes.
Although the timing of the first assays is delayed due to slower than anticipated drilling and processing time, this has allowed us time to build a preliminary 3D model aimed at targeting hypogene enrichment."