Holmer resource up after drill program

A 36-hole shallow drill program by Holmer Gold Mines (HGM-T) has permitted a new resource calculation at the company’s Bristol Twp. project, west of Timmins, Ont.

Holmer’s new estimate of 1.96 million tonnes grading 8 grams gold per tonne is based on 68 drill holes. A June 1997 resource estimate, calculated from the results of 56 holes, had put the resource at 1.3 million tonnes at 8 grams.

The revised figure assumes a cutoff grade of 3 grams per tonne and a minimum true width of 1 metre. The drill holes are spaced 25-50 metres apart.

The deposit, 5 km northwest of the Band-Ore Resources (BAN-T) discovery in Thorneloe Twp., is in five parallel zones in mafic and ultramafic rocks. All the zones form systems of quartz-tourmaline veins surrounded by disseminated pyrite and, in the mafic rocks, secondary albite and quartz.

Three of the zones — Upper, Hangingwall and Main — are in the mafic volcanics; a fourth, the Footwall zone, is at the contact with an ultramafic body. All four of these zones are restricted to a 200-metre-wide zone of deformation that Holmer geologists believe is a western extension of the main Destor-Procupine fault zone. The fifth zone, the Ultramafic, is in the ultramafic body itself.

Part of the resource Holmer has defined is a low-grade body within 100 metres of surface, containing 720,000 tonnes with a grade of 2.6 grams gold per tonne, based on a 0.5-gram cutoff. Holmer is eyeing this zone as a possible open-pit mine.