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Imperial Metals: Exploration Target Significantly Enhanced at Red Chris East Ridge
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Metals Corporation (the “Imperial” or the “Company”) (TSX:III) announces significantly
About this update from Imperial Metals Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":" VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Metals Corporation (the “Imperial” or the “Company”) (TSX:III) announces significantly enhanced East Ridge Exploration Target at Red Chris, indicating the potential of additional block cave mining. Imperial holds a 30% interest in the Red Chris mine. The enhanced Exploration Target, as of March 6, 2023, has increased to between 400 million tonnes at 0.49% copper and 0.42 g/t gold and 500 million tonnes at 0.47% copper and 0.39 g/t gold. This represents a significant increase from the initial Exploration Target (included on the table below) reported on July 20, 2022. The Exploration Target is in addition to the current published mineral resource and relates to the portion of the deposit that has not yet been adequately drill tested. The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource. The East Ridge is outside of the currently published Red Chris Mineral Resource Estimate. Estimate Imperial Reported Tonnes (M) Copper (%) Gold (g/t) Copper lbs (B) Gold Oz (M) Lower Tonnage 13 Mar 2023 400 0.49 0.42 4.2 5.4 Upper Tonnage 13 Mar 2023 500 0.47 0.39 5.1 6.1 Lower Tonnage 20 Jul 2022 170 0.5 0.5 2.0 2.8 Upper Tonnage 20 Jul 2022 300 0.4 0.4 2.9 4.3 Drilling indicates East Ridge could contain higher gold and copper grades than Cave Block 2, the second East Zone block cave. The East Ridge mineralisation could provide the opportunity to change the block cave sequencing and target these higher-grade tonnes after Cave Block 1, the first East Zone block cave. It could also offer potential for a second production front in parallel to the main underground development. The grades and tonnages are estimates based on continuity of mineralization defined by exploration diamond drilling results (previously reported including relevant sections and plans) with the lower range estimate in the area having a nominal drill hole spacing of 100 metres by 100 metres and the upper range estimate extended into the area with a nominal drill hole spacing of 100 metres by 200 metres. Diamond drilling continues to define the extent and continuity of this higher-grade mineralisation. At least 10 a...