Vancouver — The latest drill results tabled by partners Miramar Mining (MAE-T) and Hope Bay Gold (HGC-T) have successfully expanded the Boston South, Naartok, P112 and Suluk zones on the Hope Bay gold project in Canada’s Nunavut Territory.
At the newly discovered Suluk zone, hole 160 cut multiple high-grade intervals, including 4.3 metres grading 16.3 grams gold per tonne, 3.4 metres averaging 40.9 grams and 8.8 metres yielding 18.5 grams. Hole 163 returned 25 metres averaging 7.4 grams gold and hole 164 returned 1.8 metres grading 18.1 grams.
At Naartok, hole 149 hit 4 metres grading 12 grams gold, hole 158 returned 4.3 metres grading 12.1 grams and hole 162 yielded 2.6 metres averaging 22.8 grams.
Targeting the area around hole 112, which cut 33.8 metres grading 6.1 grams gold, hole 150 returned 21 metres grading 5.7 grams gold and hole 151 cut 1.7 metres grading 8.6 grams. Based on the latest results, the mineralization in this area has a limited extent. However, the partners feel that the thick intervals deserve additional work.
At the Boston South deposit, five holes tested the southern extension. Hole 288 hit 3.3 metres grading 29 grams gold and hole 289 returned 4 metres grading 11.2 grams.
“These results continue to expand the mineralization in the Madrid and Boston areas,” says David Fennell, chairman of Hope Bay Gold.
The Suluk zone was found earlier this year through drilling in the Madrid area. It lies southeast of the Naartok zone, along the trend of the Deformation zone, which appears to control the mineralization at Naartok.
Miramar and Hope Bay believe the Naartok and Suluk zones could represent a third high-grade area at the project. The other two deposits, Boston and Doris, have measured and indicated resources of 2.46 million tonnes grading 16.9 grams gold, equal to 1.3 million oz. Within Doris, a further 1.1 million tonnes grading 16.8 grams, or 579,000 oz., are categorized as inferred.
Suluk is marked by three parallel mineralized horizons. These have been traced for 350 metres along strike and show similar traits to Naartok, including silicification, quartz stockwork veining and pyrite within a broader sericite-dolomite alteration halo. Gold mineralization is associated with brecciated, silicified and sulphidized mafic-to-ultramafic volcanic rocks. Higher gold values are associated with altered rocks containing greater than 5% pyrite.
The partners recently contributed $2.9 million to the expansion of the original $10-million exploration program at Hope Bay. The search for new discoveries along the 80-km-long Hope Bay belt is continuing.
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