Sudbury Contact aims drills at Tonkin Springs

Drilling is under way at the Tonkin Springs gold property in the Battle Mountain trend of central Nevada.

Sudbury Contact Mines (SUD-T), which acquired the option to earn a 60% interest in the project earlier this year, will sink 19,000 ft. to expand known resources and test three newly discovered geochemical anomalies coincident with favourable structures. One target, known as Black Springs, returned 45 ft. of 0.05 oz. per ton in previous drilling.

The Tonkin Springs property consists of 1,055 claims covering 36 sq. miles in Eureka Cty., south of Elko. As part of its agreement with minority property-owner U.S. Gold (USGL-O), Sudbury Contact must spend US$2 million on exploration over the next three years.

U.S. Gold began initial gold production from an open-pit, heap-leach mine on the property in 1985. However, operations were suspended in November 1988 during construction of a 2,000-ton-per-day bio-oxidation mill for sulphide ores. The mill is currently on care-and-maintenance.

Resources top 30.7 million tons grading 0.045 oz. per ton and are divided among a series of oxide and sulphide deposits sitting on the southern portion of the property. Eight holes recently sunk in the TSP-1 pit area, which hosts a third of the resource, released 80-91% of their contained gold in flotation and cyanidation tests. This is higher than historic recovery rates and bodes well for future efforts.

Sudbury Contact is 59%-held by Agnico-Eagle Mines (AGE-T) and is that company’s principal exploration subsidiary. Tonkin Springs is the first property Sudbury Contact has acquired since it merged with another Agnico-Eagle subsidiary, Silver Century.

The company holds 34 additional exploration properties for gold, base metals and diamonds across northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec.