Long a favourite among newsletter writers and retail-oriented mining analysts,
The company has discovered significant base metal mineralization in a belt of rocks not previously recognized for their volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) potential. A first pass of drilling tested the near-surface potential of the Dom polymetallic showing, discovered in the fall of 2003. The best hole, angled at minus 70, delivered 19.5 metres grading 9.94% zinc, 2.12% lead and 0.73% copper, plus 96.4 grams silver per tonne, starting at a down-hole depth of 33 metres on line 4+50N. This 19.5-metre section of hole 17 included, at bottom, 10.5 metres grading 15.4% zinc, 3.12% lead, 0.46% copper, and 117 grams silver.
Eight shallow holes tested 200 metres of a 300-metre-long, coincident electromagnetic anomaly on four sections. Five of the holes intersected a steeply dipping lens of semi-massive-to-massive sulphides hosted in an altered volcanic sequence over a strike length of about 150 metres. The sulphide lens, which starts off a few metres thick on line 3+00N, thickens to 20 metres by line 4+50N. However, the main lens was not intersected near-surface on line 5+00N in either holes 5 or 6.
A summary of the semi-massive and massive sulphide intercepts from the Dom zone is provided in the accompanying table. It remains wide open at depth.
In addition, several holes intercepted disseminated, semi-massive and stringer-sulphide zones in the lower portion of the altered volcanic sequence. Hole 17, for instance, encountered zones of disseminated sulphides at depth, including 1.5 metres of 5.16% zinc, 0.13% lead, 0.07% copper, and 8 grams silver at 113 metres down-hole. Virginia believes these zones could represent lateral extensions of other lenses.
The Dom showing was discovered last fall in a belt of rocks originally mapped as paragneisses and sediments. Prospecting had turned up a gossanous area highly anomalous in zinc and copper. “Now we know this is mostly altered mafic and felsic volcanics,” Virginia’s vice-president of exploration, Paul Archer, tells The Northern Miner. He adds that the discovery is similar to the Winston Lake story in Ontario, where a paragneiss assemblage was later reinterpreted as volcanic in origin.
“We knew there was a belt of at least mafic volcanics and iron formation, but we were not aware of the presence of felsic volcanics until after we completed reconnaissance mapping,” says Archer. The Dom showing was traced on surface over a lateral distance of 250 metres in a bimodal volcanic sequence containing cordierite-bearing felsic schists and a highly altered anthophyllite sulphide horizon. Trenching along this horizon exposed high-grade sulphide stringers and lenses containing variable proportions of pyrrhotite, pyrite, sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite. Selected sampling of the blasted trenches yielded values ranging from 0.05 to 22.4% zinc, 0.03 to 0.19% copper, 0.05 to 7.3% lead and 6.8 to 482 grams silver, plus up to 0.48 gram gold per tonne.
Upon making the discovery, Virginia staked the belt thoroughly, which runs 60 km long in a north-south direction. The Coulon project covers 650 sq. km in total. The newly discovered Dom zone is just 25 km north of the Fontanges airport and 15 km north of the Trans-Taiga Road.
Virginia subjected the area to airborne geophysics and ended-up with “many, many conductors,” Archer says, adding that at the beginning of the year, a 10-km-long grid was centred on the Dom showing. “We could not cover all the conductors on the property, there was simply just too many.”
Follow-up ground geophysics over the grid area included standard-frequency horizontal loop electromagnetic and magnetic surveys, which defined a 300-metre-long conductor associated with the Dom showing, as well as other similar-looking conductors 1 km farther to the north. That area, referred to as Dom Nord, was tested with nine holes totalling 1,342 metres during the first round of drilling.
“That’s where we intersected the thickest alteration zone so far seen on the property,” says Archer. Hole 9, drilled on line 18+00N, intersected alteration spanning at least 60 metres thick, including disseminated, semi-massive and stringer sulphide mineralization grading 0.51% copper, 14.4 grams silver, 0.08% zinc and 0.15 gram gold across 12 metres starting at 61 metres down-hole. The alteration zone is re-crystallized by metamorphism and includes anthophyllite, muscovite, sillimanite, diopsides, cordierite and talc. “This is an alteration zone that we feel is typical of an alteration pipe that underlies a VMS body,” explains Archer.
On section 17+00N, hole 8 encountered a 38.1-metre mineralized section grading 1.31% copper, 12.6 grams silver, 0.59% zinc and 0.11 gram gold beginning at 124 metres down-hole. “In most of the VMS camps, the deposits occur in clusters. Hopefully, Dom Nord will lead us to another massive-sulphide body,” says Archer.
Both the Dom and Dom Nord areas will receive additional drilling when exploration resumes in June. New target areas associated with favourable felsic volcanics will be followed-up with prospecting and reconnaissance exploration work. An excavator is being brought in to aid with stripping. Virginia has budgeted about $1 million for exploration on the Coulon project this year.
“So far we have found two areas with significant mineralization, and we think that this is just the beginning,” says Archer. “We already have, in other places, conductors that are comparable, in terms of size and conductivity, to the Dom and Dom Nord conductors. And these are associated with the same general felsic volcanic sequence.”
In the same general area of Quebec, Virginia is pulling some interesting numbers from a gold discovery on its Corvet project, 50 km from Coulon and south of the LG-4 reservoir.
The company recently completed 21 holes for a total 2,500 metres while testing gold-bearing surface showings exposed last fall along two corridors. The Contact zone had been traced at surface for more than 1 km and returned values of up to 30 grams in selected samples and up to 6.59 grams across 2 metres in channels. Selective sampling in the Marco zone, 2 km northeast of the Contact zone, returned values varying between 2.7 and 56 grams, plus 3.79 grams over 5.2 metres in the only channel done on that zone.
The Marco zone was tested by nine holes across a lateral distance of 200 metres and to a vertical depth of 130 metres. The best result came from hole 18, which intersected 13.4 metres of 5.12 grams from 184 metres down-hole. The Contact zone was tested by nine holes over a lateral distance of 2.3 km. The best intercept was 10.3 grams (cut) across 4.7 metres, beginning at a depth of 89 metres in hole 14. “We’re hitting gold at many different locations in a 1-by-2-km area of the project,” says Archer. “We will be aggressive there this summer.”
All the zones remain open along strike and at depth.
Summary of Dom Zone Semi-Massive and Massive Intercepts
HoleLineAngleIntervalWidthZincLeadCopperSilver
(m)(m)(%)(%)(%)(g/t)
13+00N-4542.4-46.44.03.770.570.0546.8
incl.43.4-44.41.011.41.320.0787.1
34+00N-4521.0-29.58.54.160.110.6138.9
44+00N-4589.6-96.46.87.880.021.030.7
incl.92.7-95.52.814.40.020.517.3
164+45N-4532.8-55.923.12.750.460.8671.7
incl.34.6-39.65.05.260.851.1997.2
174+45N-7033.0-52.519.59.942.120.7396.4
incl.42.0-52.510.515.43.120.46117.2
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