Baie Verte peninsula discoveries spark exploration boom

More recently, the Baie Verte peninsula has been host to four new discoveries made during the last six months. These finds are a direct result of a renewed flurry of exploration activity in the area.

“What’s significant here,” says Dan MacInnis of Noranda Exploration, “is that unlike in Nova Scotia, the majors are involved with Newfoundland exploration in a big way.”

MacInnis says Noranda has deals with some 12 or more junior companies involving combined expenditures totalling $20 million on all its properties during the next three years.

Noranda’s latest deal with Noront Resources (VSE), involving the huge Grubline property, was designed to take advantage of the new Canadian Exploration Incentive Program (CEIP) which comes into effect in January.

Although the Baie Verte peninsula has been known for its base and precious metal potential for over a century, there still appears to be ample exploration potential. Many of the earlier operations “high-graded” the deposits leaving much of the lower grade material unmined.

Exploration was minimal under the old mining legislation which permitted large concessions to be held with little or no exploration work required.

As evidenced by the discoveries on the Baie Verte peninsula, the search for gold has only recently met with much success.

A new gold zone was confirmed by Bitech Energy Resources (ASE) during its November drilling campaign on property near Betts Cove. Although the extent of the zone has yet to be determined, it represents a new discovery in an area largely unexplored for its gold potential. The highlight from the drill program completed in December was a 66.9-ft (57 ft true width) intersection which graded 0.46 oz gold per ton. That intersection included a 21.7-ft section from 361.9 ft to 383.6 ft averaging 0.97 oz gold per ton.

Two additional gold discoveries, located on the western part of the peninsula south of Mings Bight, include the Lightning Zone on claims held by Varna Gold Inc. (ASE), recently optioned to Corona Corp. (TSE), and the Stog’er Tight showings on ground held by 50/50 joint venture partners International Impala Resources (VSE), and Noranda Exploration (TSE). Murray Pezim is chairman of International Impala.

The Lightning zone was discovered last summer by Varna Gold and the property was optioned to Corona in November. The 7,000- acre claim group has numerous occurrences and follow up diamond drilling by Varna last fall along a 700-ft strike length produced values in two distinct zones of 0.325 oz gold per ton over a true width of 20.5 ft, and 0.188 oz gold per ton over a true width of 14.1 ft.

Corona will spend a minimum of $500,000 on exploration of the Mings Bight property during the first year of its option.

Highlights of the drilling by International Impala and Noranda on the Stog’er Tight showing are as follows: WidthGrade Hole (ft)(oz/t) 24 11.80.33 26 10.10.25 29 26.60.20 14.80.34 30 9.80.25 33 9.50.25 37 15.70.28 38 17.70.25 41 3.90.28

In November, Petromet Resources (TSE) announced a new copper-gold discovery on the Rambler property south of Mings Bight. The company, together with Newfoundland Exploration (ASE) and Teck Corp. (TSE) successfully outbid Inco Gold (TSE) for the property after it had reverted to the Crown under the government’s reversion policy.

The new massive sulphide zone, located in the northern part of the property near the old Ming mine, has a strike length of about 240 ft with an average width of 15 ft.

Some of the recent channel sample results from the copper zone include a 19.3-ft section grading 3.38% copper, 0.49% zinc, 0.064 oz gold, and 0.59 oz silver per ton. Another sample taken 60 ft along strike yielded 3.83% copper, 0.78% zinc, 0.063 oz gold and 0.67 oz silver per ton over a sample width of 23.6 ft.

The first batch of diamond drilling results from the new Ming West zone, were released in late December. The highlights are as follows: LengthCopperGold Hole(ft)(%)(oz/t) 1 6.1 7.210.08 211.9 4.000.05 3 7.110.200.20 4 8.3 4.000.02 7 7.1 5.830.07 10 9.2 3.260.04 1112.7 6.090.04 1219.2 5.300.05 16 7.0 6.03n.a.

The company says the above holes were drilled on 50-ft centres. Holes 1 to 9 tested the sulphide zone at a vertical depth of 75 ft, while holes 10 to 16 inclusive tested the zone at a vertical depth of 150 ft.

Drilling was done over a maximum length of 350 ft. The zone plunges to the north at 25 degrees and appears to be getting wider with depth. About $1.3 million has been spent to date under the current exploration program.

According to Petromet President Donald Sawyer, the zone was discovered by combination of detailed geophysics (Max-Min) and sulphide boulder tracing along favorable stratigraphy. A $3.8-million-exploration program currently under way on the Rambler property is being managed by MPH Consultants of Toronto.

]]>