Discoveries add lustre to Manitoba’s gold camps

VANCOUVER–Manitoba’s historic gold districts are getting a new lease on life from junior companies aspiring to become mid-tier producers. San Gold (SGR-V, SGRCF-O) has revived the Rice Lake belt, where it operates the Rice Lake mine and mill and has discovered nearby high-grade zones. In the Lynn Lake greenstone belt, Carlisle Goldfields (CGJ-T, CRSEF-O) is exploring a 200-sq.-km land package that includes the past-producing BT and Farley Lake open-pit mines and underground McLellan mine.

Carlisle has released an initial National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate for the McLellan project, based on data from 428 surface and 810 underground drill holes, which include 41 holes completed in 2006 and 2007. Measured and indicated resources now stand at 932,000 tonnes grading 6.81 grams gold and 11.4 grams silver per tonne, with another 904,000 tonnes at 7.16 grams gold and 11.4 grams silver in the inferred category.

The measured and indicated resources contain an estimated 204,200 oz. gold and 341,300 oz. silver, plus 208,000 oz. gold and 330,900 oz. silver within the inferred resource. The resource exists between surface and 450 metres depth, and remains open downdip to the north.

The Lynn Lake greenstone belt has produced an estimated 433,000 oz. gold and 1.3 million oz. silver from 1986 to 1989, of which 144,000 oz. gold and 420,000 oz. silver are attributed to the pastproducing McLellan mine.

Carlisle began drilling the historic mine just 18 months ago, with drilling focused on confirming the historic resource and identifying areas with potential for resource expansion. The company sees potential to expand resources below 450 metres, as the 2007 drilling program returned mineralized intersections at depths below 600 metres.

San Gold, meanwhile, has reactivated the Rice Lake belt, where it owns and operates the Rice Lake mine and mill complex (previously known as the San Antonio or Bisset mine) and the nearby smaller San No. 1 gold mine.

Earlier this year, the company reported the discovery of multiple new gold-bearing zones in a volcanic sequence about 1.5 km northeast of the Rice Lake mine, and within an extensive area that is road-accessible yet largely unexplored.

Recent drilling in the new Hinge No. 4 zone encountered 85.1 grams gold per tonne over 6.3 metres at 100 metres below surface in a broad, continuous quartz-carbonate vein containing abundant visible gold throughout.

The company describes the highgrade hole (No. 33) as “the most significant hole drilled in the Rice Lake belt, and in Manitoba, for some time.”

The distribution of grade within the zone ranged from 2.1 grams gold over 1.5 metres up to 193.2 grams gold over 1.3 metres.

Assays are awaited from additional drilling on the zone and section. Three of these holes are reported to have encountered similar intersections in terms of width and mineralogy, “with strong mineralization including visible gold observed in each hole.” The zone remains open along strike and at depth.

Two diamond drills are currently testing the Hinge area, where at least four sub-parallel new veins have been discovered to date, along with numerous uncorrelated breccia zones within 100-300 metres of surface.