2 potential gold mines Baie Verte’s potential growing

Most of the area around Baie Verte has been staked solid and at least two significant gold prospects are being probed for their mine making potential in the hills between Baie Verte and Mings Bight.

Major follow-up work programs are planned this summer on the Lightning zone and Stoger Tight prospect where significant gold discoveries were made last year. Two senior mining firms, Noranda Exploration and Corona Corp. (TSE) are the current key players on those gold properties.

The Lightning zone, under option to Corona from Varna Gold (ASE), will see drilling get under way by July, says Corona’s regional geologist, Peter Dimmell, who is also in the process of establishing a regional office in St. John’s.

Corona is earning a 51% interest in the Varna property which Dimmell describes as his company’s biggest exploration bet in the Baie Verte region. This summer’s work will include geological mapping and line cutting in addition to more drilling on the Lightning gold zone.

To date, 11 diamond drill holes by Varna have intersected significant gold mineralization over an area measuring about 200 x 300 m. Most of the 7,000-acre claim block still remains to be explored and there are several untested anomalies.

According to Dimmell, Corona has spent roughly half of the $500,000 it is required to spend in the first year of its option. A considerable amount of bulldozer stripping was done last year on the Lightning zone by Varna. Surface exposures examined by The Northern Miner revealed pyritic quartz veins in altered and structurally complex volcanic rocks. Highlights from last year’s drilling included intersections of 0.32 oz gold per ton over 20.5 ft and 0.18 oz over 14.1 ft.

This year’s program should provide a better understanding of the Lightning gold zone and advance an otherwise virtually unexplored property to a more mature exploration level.

On property adjacent to the Corona option, another promising gold bet, known as the Stoger Tight prospect, is being explored by 50/50 joint venture partners Noranda Exploration and International Impala Resources (VSE). There hasn’t been much news coming out of this property recently, but Noranda reports it has been encouraged with the results to date. The company says it is still too early to report any specific ore reserve figures for the property.

In another area, south of the Rambler base metal property, Corona has come up with a new gold find called the Brass Buckle prospect. The showing was found last November by prospecting and follow up of a geochemical anomaly. One surface channel sample yielded 8 oz gold over a 1.6-ft width. Earlier this year, seven drill holes tested the zone at shallow depths, but results were marginal.

Adjacent to the Corona claims, Cliff Resources (TSE) has been busy exploring its Gull Pond property where a 6,500-ft drill program was conducted last winter. An interesting high-grade lead sulphide showing was discovered on that property, says Cliff geologist Pearce Bradley. Follow-up work to further test the gold potential of the property is planned for this year once budgets are finalized. Cliff has a total of five claim blocks on the Baie Verte Peninsula. Cliff also controls the Baie Verte asbestos mine where a new wet process technology is being installed to reprocess the old asbestos tailings, thereby extending the life of the mine. The community of Baie Verte relies largely on the open pit asbestos mine for much of its current employment.

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