West Mining Commences 2021 Exploration Program at Its 100% Owned Kena Gold-Copper Project, BC VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- West Mining Corp. (“West” or the “Company”) ( CSE: WEST) (OTC: WESMF) is pleased to announce that the 2021 exploration program is now underway on its 100% owned Kena gold and copper project in southeastern British Columbia. The over 8000 hectare Kena Project consists of the Kena, Daylight and Athabasca Properties, which trend along a 20 kilometre long favourable mineralized belt.
The fully funded $2 million 2021 exploration program will focus on 3 key items:
- diamond drilling designed to add ounces to the current gold resource estimate ;
- deep diamond drilling into the Kena Copper Zone porphyry system;
- geological mapping, sampling and prospecting several historic underexplored workings .
KENA PROJECT
The Kena Project claim block is divided up into 3 property areas: the Kena, Daylight and Athabasca Properties .
The Kena Property
The Kena Property hosts several gold mineralized zones, most notably the Kena Gold and Gold Mountain Zones included in the recent resource estimate hosting 2.77 million ounces of gold inferred and 0.56 million ounces of gold indicated (see News Release dated May 11, 2021). 3D modelling and imagery is currently being utilized to identify precise drill targets for expansion of the open ended gold resource on the Kena Gold and Gold Mountain Zones. The South Gold Zone, located 2 kilometres south along the same structure hosting the Kena Gold and Gold Mountain Zones, is likely a continuation of those mineralized zones. Prior drilling from 2002 at the South Gold Zone returned 0.9 g/t gold over 90 metres core length (true width unknown) (BC ARIS Report #27240).
The Kena Copper Zone is a large copper halo around the South Gold Zone defined by a 2500 x 450 metres copper soil geochemical anomaly coincident with an induced polarization chargeability high. Nine broad spaced historic drill holes have been put over the Kena Copper Zone between 1981 and 2010. In 2021, three fences, including deep diamond drill holes will be put in across the central core of the Kena Copper Zone.
South of the South Gold Zone/Kena Copper Zone, recent airborne magnetic survey coverage shows that the magnetic feature associated with the mineralizing structure hosting the Kena Gold and Gold Mountain Zone extends a further 9 kilometres. Along this southern extent are several target areas to be followed up with geological mapping, sampling and prospecting during the current exploration program. Two historic small scale past producing mines occur along this trend:
- the Euphrates Mine (BC Minfile# 082FSW186 produced 307 tonnes grading 46.9 g/t gold, 249.3 g/t silver, 2.7% lead and 1.7% zinc) ;
- the Gold Cup Mine (BC Minfile# 082FSW079 produced 24 tonnes grading 51.8 g/t gold).
Daylight Property
The Daylight Property, included as part of the recent resource estimate, has 2 key gold target areas for 2021 diamond drilling: the Starlight Trend and the Great Western Zone. On the 3 kilometre long Starlight Trend, in 2021, a series of short fan drill holes will test step out mineralization from the Starlight shear/vein system where prior sampling returned 23 g/t gold over 1.0 metre chip sample and 30.4 g/t gold over 0.3 metres in drill core (BC ARIS Report #27240).
At the Great Western Zone, diamond drilling in 2021 (BC ARIS Report #37536) returned several intercepts, including 1.09 g/t Au over 71.22 metres (true width not known). Two fences of diamond drill holes in 2021 are planned to cross the Great Western Zone target area, identified by a strong gold geochemical signature.
The Daylight Property also contains several historic past producing small scale mines, including:
- Starlight (BC Minfile# 082FSW174 produced 10.8 tonnes at 54.0 g/t gold, 271.9 g/t silver and 1.9% copper) ;
- Daylight (BC Minfile# 082FSW175 produced 327 tonnes at 27 g/t gold, 15 g/t silver, plus minor lead and zinc) ;
- Victoria (BC Minfile# 082FSW173 produced 3255 tonnes at 1.16 g/t gold, 28.9 g/t silver and 2.6% copper) ;
- Great Eastern (BC Minfile# 082FSW172 produced 34 tonnes at 37.5 g/t gold and 52.2 g/t silver) ;
- and Irene (BC Minfile# 082FSW171 produced 15 tonnes at 18.2 g/t gold and 25.1 g/t silver)
It is assumed that hand sorting of ore occurred prior to shipping and that these historically reported values may not represent true grades.
Athabasca Property
The newly acquired Athabasca Property (see News Release dated March 24, 2021) will be subject to geological mapping, sampling and prospecting during the course of the 2021 field season. Historic work, including limited drilling and past production has occurred at the Athabasca Gold Mine (BC Minfile# 082FSW168 produced 20,219 tonnes grading 30 g/t gold and 10 g/t silver ).
“We are excited to get boots on the ground at the significant Kena Gold-Copper Project,” states CEO of West Mining Corp., Nicholas Houghton. “This exploration season’s diamond drilling programs will look to significantly increase gold ounces in our recently reported resource estimation and get our experienced Geological and Drilling teams working on the underexplored copper porphyry system executing a series of deep holes. In conjunction to this our field crew will be evaluating the historic workings and recently identified new anomalies in both the southern and northern extensions to our property.”
Linda Dandy, P.Geo., a “Qualified Person” for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
About West Mining Corp.
West Mining Corp. is a mineral exploration company acquiring and developing advanced and prospective early-stage exploration projects. It is fully focused on its 100% owned 8,000 hectare Kena Project located near Nelson, British Columbia. There has been over 39,000 metres of drilling completed to date on the project. The Kena Project comprises three adjoining Properties: Kena, Daylight and Athabasca. A recent NI43-101 resource estimate for Kena gave 561,000 oz Au indicated and 2,773,100 oz Au inferred in the Gold Mountain, Kena Gold and Daylight Zones. The Kena Property hosts the Kena Gold, Gold Mountain and Copper King showings together with the historic Euphrates and Gold Cup gold mines. The Daylight property contains the historic past producing Daylight, Starlight, Victoria and Great Eastern gold mines. Along trend to the north is the Athabasca Property, with the historic Athabasca Gold Mine. The historic mines and known mineralized zones on these three properties are structurally controlled along a 20 kilometres strike as identified by strong geophysical signatures.
For additional information, please refer to the Company’s public disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .
West Mining Corp.
Nicholas Houghton
President & CEO
nick@westminingcorp.com