Band-Ore cuts more gold at Thorne (October 15, 2003)

Ongoing drilling at the Thorne gold property in Timmins, Ont., has returned more soothing results to Band-Ore Resources (BAN-T).

The junior explorer has sunk seven more holes in the No. 7, the discovery of which was announced in early Sept. All but one hit their mark, extending the zone’s strike length to 180 metres.

Hole 17 yielded the highest grade of 9.59 grams per tonne over 4.5 metres (starting at 125.8 metres downhole), including 2.7 metres at 14.92 grams. The hole also averaged 0.47 gram between 104 and 105.5 metres downhole and 0.45 gram between 220 and 221 metres downhole.

Gold values for the remaining holes varied from less than half a gram over 4.5 metres to 5.75 grams over 1 metre. Several such intervals were reported for each hole.

Hole 15 was stopped 11 metres down, after intersecting a diabase dike.

Meanwhile, hole 14, collared to the north, failed to yield more than half a gram from the Red Porphyry prospect. Red Porphyry also represents a recent discovery and lies near-surface.

Hole 14 was collared 150 metres north of hole 10, itself collared 50 metres north of discovery hole 5. Hole 10 averaged 0.26 gram over 13.5 metres and 0.37 gram over 31.5 metres, similar to hole 3, which averaged 0.61 gram over 2.5 metres.

The Red Porphyry prospect is characterized by hematite-sericite-pyrite alteration and is located about 1 km north of the so-called Golden River West and East areas. A 1998 resource estimate outlined 4 million tonnes in the 13 zones found in those areas, averaging 3 grams per tonne.

Drilling continues, focusing on both new and known mineralization.