Feasibility study on Red Lake mine project expected later this year: Rubicon Minerals measures more than 800,000 ounces at Phoenix Gold.

A feasibility study on a mothballed Red Lake mine project is due out in the second half of 2020.

By that time Rubicon Minerals expects to prove up more ounces at its shuttered Phoenix Gold operation as underground drilling continues to expand the gold resource base.

The Toronto mine developer's updated estimated gold count for the project shows 811,000 ounces of gold in the measured and indicated category, up 38 per cent from 589,000 ounces.

That jump is attributed a successful 13,000-metre infill drilling program at its main F2 Gold Zone.

The drilling program is designed to shift the classification of the mineral resource base from the inferred category (a lower degree of confidence) to indicated and measured (higher degrees of confidence), covering aspects like grade, tonnage, characteristics and mineral content of the gold occurrence.

The estimate reflects all the drilling information results up to the end of last September.

"The expansion of the measured and indicated mineral resource estimate above 800,000 ounces has given us the confidence to begin mine planning and engineering work at the Phoenix Gold Project, with the goal of demonstrating the project's commercial viability," said Rubicon president-CEO George Ogilvie in a Jan. 7 news release.

Infill drilling still continues between the 976-metre level and the 1,098-metre of the mine.

Since September, the company said more than 3,000 metres of additional infill drilling has been done on the F2 Zone between the mine's 976 and 1,098 metre levels.

Rubicon expressed confidence the deposit's resource base can be upgraded to...