Cambior options Lac Elmer

An option agreement with Cambior (CBJ-T) sets the stage for another round of exploration at Eastmain Resources‘ (ER-T) Lac Elmer gold project, 300 km north of Matagami in northern Quebec.

The Quebec miner can earn a 50% interest in the project from current owners Eastmain and Barrick Gold (ABX-T) by spending $1 million on exploration. Once this interest is earned, Cambior and Eastmain will form a joint venture, and Eastmain’s former partner, Barrick, will retain a 2% net smelter return royalty on any commercial production.

Lac Elmer is said to be geologically similar to the producing Doyon and Bousquet gold mines in Quebec’s Abitibi district. These underground producers are operated by Cambior and Barrick, respectively.

Previous work at Lac Elmer focused on a 7-km-long band of volcanic rocks anomalous in gold, silver and base metals. The favourable horizon is a siliceous and pyritic rhyolite tuff that has been hydrothermally altered on a large scale.

Past drilling intersected a zone of volcanogenic sulphide mineralization, with grades of up to 6.9 grams gold and 1,000 grams silver per tonne, along with wide intervals of anomalous copper and zinc.

A 2,000-metre drill program is scheduled to start immediately. It will test the Lac Elmer horizon along strike and at depth. Eastmain has other gold properties in the region, and is also exploring for gold and base metals in Quebec, northern Ontario and New Brunswick.