Drilling at Third Portage zone should boost gold resources

Drilling has wound down on the Third Portage zone of the Meadowbank property in the eastern Northwest Territories. The property is shared by Cumberland Resources (TSE) and Comaplex Minerals (TSE), which own 60% and 40%, respectively.

Assay results from the 15-hole, 5,000-ft. program are expected to add significantly to the current resource of 1.2 million tons grading 0.19 oz. gold per ton. Drilling was conducted on 130-ft. centres in the central portion of the zone, found within the first 400 ft. from surface.

Some of the better intersections occurred on section 0+40 north, where hole 95-86 cut a 44.9-ft. interval that averaged 0.5 oz., while hole 95-87 hit a 32.8-ft. interval that graded 0.26 oz.

Third Portage lies along the same gold-bearing iron formation that hosts the Goose Island zone, which has a resource estimated at 497,110 tons averaging 0.37 oz.

In the spring, drilling will test the area between Goose Island and Third Portage.

Elsewhere, 85 miles west of Arviat, N.W.T., Comaplex has discovered another gold-bearing iron formation on its Noomut Trend gold property.

After identifying the trend late in 1994, Comaplex completed mapping, geophysical surveys and rock sampling over a 1.4-mile portion of the Ironside showing. The showing consists of a series of strongly sheared and altered iron formations interlayered with mafic volcanics. Of the 68 rock samples taken, 30% returned assays greater than 0.1 oz. gold per ton, with the highest sampling running 3.39 oz.

On the same property, four samples from a sheared and silicified volcaniclastic horizon returned 0.1 to 0.2 oz. The volcaniclastic horizon is 7.5 miles northeast and along strike of the Ironside showing. Cumberland and Comaplex have other gold prospects in the N.W.T.