Entourage gets first sniff of high-grade gold near Hemlo

Entourage Metals (EMT-V) has added a second drill rig to its Black Raven gold prospect in the Schreiber-Hemlo greenstone belt of Northern Ontario following encouraging first-pass drill results.

Nearly 11 months after listing as a gold junior focused on finding the second major gold deposit in the famed Hemlo belt, Entourage says it has found its first promising high-grade gold vein, named Super G.  Surface sampling of a quartz vein outcrop on the property last summer yielded up to 734 grams gold per tonne and prompted the company to launch a 10-hole, 2,000-metre drill program that October. The company has completed six holes so far with assays back for four of them. The best hole, BR11-04, returned 2.38 metres grading 44.57 grams gold starting from a depth of 164 metres – what Entourage says “may be the highest grade found outside of the Hemlo mines in the Hemlo greenstone belt since 1981.”

Entourage adds the intercept is part of a mineralized, shear-zone-hosted quartz vein system in mafic volcanic rocks, currently thought to measure at least 400 metres along strike and 110 metres down dip. Assays for an additional two holes testing the vein along strike are pending. As the Super G shear strikes underneath a lake just south of the surface outcrop, Entourage is preparing to start ice-based drilling in January.

“This new discovery confirms the potential for other styles of gold mineralization which were overlooked during the exploration rush after the initial discovery of Hemlo,” Jeff Sundar, president of the company, commented in a prepared statement on Jan. 19.

Though the Hemlo deposit was discovered in 1981 and has produced more than 20 million gold oz. from three closely spaced, competing mines, Entourage says it is the only substantial gold deposit found to date in the 60-km-long belt despite the efforts of countless other companies.

Entourage is actively exploring four properties in the belt, including Black Raven, Toothpick West, Rous Lake and Benton, all of which are optioned 100% by Entourage. During 2011, the company spent approximately $3.3 million on exploration, with diamond drilling programs still ongoing at Black Raven and Rous Lake. Final assay results have been received from drilling at Toothpick West, however, of the four holes completed at the property totalling 3,037 metres, the best intercept was just 2 metres of 3.06 grams gold around a depth of 340 metres.

At Rous Lake, Entourage is completing 2,000 metres of pure exploration drilling targeting geological, geophysical and geochemical anomalies. As the prospect area (located approximately 8 km west of the Hemlo deposit) is underlain by glacial overburden up to 150 m deep, the company has completed gravimetric and soil gas hydrocarbon surveys to better define drill targets. Drilling is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2012. Assays from a surface exploration program at the Benton property are also expected in late January.

Entourage’s management comprises many of the players involved in the successful sale of Underworld Resources in early 2010 to Kinross Gold (K-T, KGC-N), including: Jeff Sundar (Entourage’s president), Adrian Fleming (its chief executive officer), Robert McLeod (chairman), Michael Williams (director) and Cale Moodie (chief financial officer).

Perhaps as a result of the Underworld purchase, Kinross picked up 1.55 million Entourage shares in a May 2011 private placement at 65¢ each for about 6.9% of the company.

Entourage has also lured Barrick’s former senior geologist at Hemlo, John Florek, into becoming vice-president of exploration and a director of the company. Entourage describes Florek as having been extremely instrumental in developing and extending the mine life at Hemlo. 

Shares of Entourage mainly drifted sideways through a volatile 2011 and last traded for 51¢ apiece on Jan. 19. The company has just 22.3 million shares outstanding, 25.7 million if fully diluted, and had $3-million in working capital as of Dec. 22, 2011.