Minnova plans to drill Seneca property in B.C.

Toronto-based Minnova (TSE) plans to conduct further drilling on the Seneca property, 65 miles east of Vancouver, B.C.

Minnova is earning a 51% interest in the property from International Curator (VSE) by making cash payments totalling $300,000 and incurring $1.6 million in exploration by 1996. The company also has the option to increase its interest by a further 9% to 60% if it expends an additional $500,000 by 1998.

The program is expected to start in mid-March and include a minimum of 16,000 ft. of drilling to test the extent of the Fleetwood zone.

Michael McInnis, president of International Curator, described the zone as a near-horizontal bedded massive sulphide lens underlain by a stockwork zone. Previous wide-spaced drilling has outlined the zone over a length of 2,150 ft. in a northwest-southeast direction. McInnis said the zone is at least 900 ft. wide and open in all directions except to the northeast, where drilling encountered a dacite dome.

Drilling in November returned a 27-ft. intersection from 809.7 ft. to 836.7 ft. grading 5.74% zinc, 0.52% copper, 0.04% lead, 0.22 oz. silver and 0.002 oz. gold per ton. The top 7.4 ft. of the intersection returned grades of 9.67% zinc and 0.79% copper.

Hole 91-16, drilled last summer, intersected the lens over a 3.6-ft. interval grading 5.56% zinc, 0.38% copper, 0.37% lead, 4.73 oz. silver and 0.069 oz. gold. The hole also encountered 105 ft. of stockwork mineralization grading 0.31% copper and 2.06% zinc.

The discovery hole, drilled in 1987, intersected the zone over 9.9 ft., returning a grade of 5.68% zinc, 0.43% copper, 1.2% lead, 2.4 oz. silver and 0.02 oz. gold.