New resource for Moneta’s Windjammer South zone

The Windjammer South zone of its Golden Highway project, 90 km east of Timmins in Ontario’s Michaud township, has potential as a small tonnage operation, Moneta Porcupine Mines (ME-T) says.

A new National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate indicates that Windjammer South contains an inferred resource of 154,000 oz. gold at an average grade of 2.3 grams gold per tonne. The calculation was based on 2.1 million tonnes of ore at a cut-off grade of 1 gram gold per tonne.

Windjammer South is open to both the east and west and at depth. The deepest mineralized intervals used in the resource estimate lie between 250 metres and 300 metres.

Moneta acquired the Windjammer property from Newmont Mining (NMC-T, NEM-N) in November 2007, adding 4 km of strike length and two known gold deposits to its Golden Highway project.

Newmont holds a 50% stake and is the operator of the Windjammer joint venture.

The initial resource estimate was based on a limited amount of historical drilling on relatively wide spacing and the company says it expects to expand it significantly during the rest of the year.

The inferred resource was developed over a 400-metre drilled strike length from 29 drill holes.

Windjammer consists of two mining leases straddling Garrison and Michaud Townships, which were drilled in the mid-1980s by Noranda at a time when gold traded at between US$250 and US$350 per oz.

Since then Windjammer has undergone little further development. Noranda encountered widespread gold mineralization in a number of zones and the work resulted in two separate gold discoveries, Windjammer South and Windjammer North.

Moneta’s inferred resource at Windjammer South is on strike from its 100%-owned Southwest zone, which it considers its “prime asset.”

The Southwest zone hosts an inferred resource of about 625,000 oz. gold, a figure calculated by Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N). Moneta is now preparing to commission a NI 43-101 resource estimate on the zone.

Altogether, Windjammer South, the Southwest zone and the 55 zone make up the southern corridor of the Golden Highway project and represent a strike length of 4 km with gold mineralization occurring within altered Timiskaming sediments along the entire length.

Moneta is currently trading at 19 a share and has a 52-week trading range of 9-28.

The company has 99.5 million shares outstanding.