Patricia tables new resource at Island Gold

A revised resource estimate at the Island Gold property in the Goudreau-Lochalsh area, northeast of Wawa, Ont., indicates a large, low-grade gold deposit.

Patricia Mining (PAT-V), which is operating the project, has calculated a resource of 20.6 million tonnes grading 2.35 grams gold per tonne in the deposit, based on a cutoff grade of 0.75 gram per tonne. The company has been re-interpreting existing drill and assay data to determine if small, high-grade resources known to exist could be joined into a larger, low-grade resource, potentially exploitable by bulk mining.

An estimate in June, using similar criteria, found 18 million tonnes grading 1.81 grams. The new resource includes mineralization extending about 500 metres northeast of the zones included in the June calculation, and rests on 37,000 metres of drilling in 373 holes.

Estimates using higher cutoff grades indicate that much of the new resource is contributed by lower-grade material enveloping the higher-grade zones. At a cutoff of 3 grams gold, the resource falls to 4.2 million tonnes grading 6 grams gold.