Doré Copper options Joe Mann gold mine

Recently listed Doré Copper Mining (TSXV: DCMC) has signed an option agreement to acquire 100% of the Joe Mann gold mine in Quebec. The project is 50 km from the company’s Copper Rand mill, which previously processed material from the mine between 2004 and the mine’s closure in 2007.

The 2,700-tonne-per-day Copper Rand concentrator is 8 km southwest of Chibougamau.

The Joe Mann gold mine, privately held since 2008, operated for 27 years between 1956 and 2007, and produced 1.2 million oz. gold at a grade of 8.26 grams gold per tonne, 607,000 oz. silver at 5 grams silver per tonne, and 28.7 million lb. copper at a grade of 0.25% copper.

The mine remains open at depth and along strike, and the property offers exploration targets, Ernest Mast, Doré Copper’s president and CEO, says, noting that exploration will focus on the potential to extend high-grade mineralization at depth as well as defining new mineralized zones, all of which are accessible from a 1,145-metre shaft. (The shaft was last deepened in 2001.)

After the mine closed, three holes were drilled from underground to test the depth extensions of the mine, 170 metres below the lowest level (1,051 metres below surface). Hole 189B intersected the main zone and returned 26.66 grams gold over 2 metres and 14.72 grams gold over 1 metre. Hole 188 also intersected the main zone and cut 30.3 grams gold and 1.3% copper over 3 metres, and in the south zone, 9.23 grams gold over 1 metre.

“Joe Mann may demonstrate similar potential to Wesdome’s Eagle River, Alamos Gold’s Island Gold or Kirkland Lake’s Macassa mine,where the high-grade gold deposits not only continue at depth — but with improved grades while yielding discoveries,” he says. “The high-grade intercepts from 2009, 170 metres below the lowest mine level, show great promise from a new high-grade zone.”

One of the highest priority targets lies in the more recently discovered West Zone, which is a potential structural offset that allows much thicker, higher-grade veins to form, and which remains open, the company says. Historic mined intercepts in the area include 2 metres of 24.62 grams gold per tonne, 4 metres of 31.54 grams gold and 3 metres of 24.28 grams gold. Unmined historic intercepts include 5 metres of 10.3 grams gold, 3 metres of 166.1 grams gold and 3 metres of 10.4 grams gold.

“The western area has not been extensively explored and appears to have a structure conducive to thicker intercepts than at the main Joe Mann mine,” Mast says.

In 2017, an airborne magnetic survey found several moderate to strong magnetic anomalies.

In addition, recent surface prospecting has found parallel zones several hundred metres south of the main mine.

Under a staged cash-and-share option agreement with Ressources Jessie and Legault, a 2% net smelter return royalty is also granted to Ressources Jessie, which will have the option to buy back 1% for $2 million and a further 0.5% for $4 million.

At the end of December, the company completed the second tranche of a private placement of flow-through shares that raised $4.5 million.

Doré Copper’s other assets are its wholly owned Corner Bay and Cedar Bay projects, both in Chibougamau.

Corner Bay has 1.35 million indicated tonnes grading 3.01% copper and 0.29 gram gold per tonne for 89.8 million lb. copper and 13,000 oz. gold, and 1.66 million inferred tonnes grading 3.84% copper and 0.27 gram gold for 140.3 million lb. copper and 15,000 oz. gold.

Cedar Bay has 130,000 indicated tonnes averaging 9.44 grams gold and 1.55% copper for 39,000 oz. gold and 4.4 million lb. copper, and 230,000 inferred tonnes grading 8.32 grams gold and 2.13% copper for 61,000 contained oz. gold and 10.8 million lb. copper.

Doré Copper Mining, formerly known as the capital pool company ChaiNode Opportunities, has 27.7 million common shares outstanding for a $37.4-million market capitalization. At press time the company was trading at $1.35 per share.