Rubicon drills two projects

Vancouver — Rubicon Minerals (RMX-V) will begin drilling at its Golden Promise project, near Badger, Nfld.

The company recently discovered a gold-bearing quartz vein, dubbed the Jacqueline zone, in an area of gold-bearing boulders that assayed up to 353.4 grams gold per tonne. The boulders were exposed after ground vegetation was destroyed in a 1999 forest fire.

Rubicon identified one bedrock exposure of a gold-bearing vein zone that had a true thickness of 2.5 metres. Also, two trenches encountered numerous, large gold-bearing boulders, extending the potential strike length of the zone to 100 metres.

Rubicon intends to drill 500-700 metres along the projected vein. Owing to the potential for nugget effect, crews will use large-diameter HQ core size (63.5 mm) to yield a representative sample for assaying.

Rubicon has a 100% interest in 440 sq. km of claims around this new discovery, and there are at least two other areas of gold-bearing boulders nearby. This suggests the possible presence of undiscovered veins.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, Rubicon has begun a 1,100-metre drill program at the AxelGold project, northeast of Smithers, B.C.

The property hosts a porphyry gold-bearing intrusion, which is under option to Wheaton River Minerals (WRM-T). Wheaton River can earn a half-interest by spending a total of $1 million by November 2003.

The drilling is testing strong gold-in-soil anomalies, as well as anomalous gold values reported from limited historical diamond drilling. Rubicon is the operator.

Elsewhere, Rubicon is exploring its core land holdings in Red Lake, Ont.