Antares set to follow up Toodoggone gold strike

Antares Mining & Exploration (ANZ-T) is set to begin a $1.5-million exploration program on its Toodoggone property, situated in north-central British Columbia, following the discovery of gold mineralization there in late 1997.

The last hole of Antares’ 1997 drill program hit 4 metres of 103.3 grams gold and 92.2 grams silver per tonne, 1.34% copper, 0.46% lead and 11.7% zinc.

To date, the company has completed more than 10,640 metres of diamond drilling, chiefly on tuff breccia and pyroclastic-hosted epithermal gold targets. However, since the gold discovery was made, drilling has also tested massive andesite flows.

Antares can earn 55% in the 28,748-ha property from AGC Americas Gold (AGA-V) by spending $5 million on exploration.

Work planned for 1998 includes further drilling at the Creek zone gold discovery, which is associated with silver and base metal values. The company believes the zone to represent a major mineralized structure. A portion of that zone is associated with a 700-metre-long segment of the overall structure defined by coincidental gold-in-soil and induced-polarization (IP) anomalies. The first priority of the 1998 drill season will be to test, with a series of fences, the extent of the coincident anomaly. Further ground magnetic and IP surveys will also be conducted to define any possible north or south strike extensions of the mineralization.