EXPLORATION 1999 – Azimut finds gold in Quebec

The Cadillac Break is still gold country for Azimut Exploration (AZM-M), which recently finished drilling campaigns on two gold prospects in northwestern Quebec.

Azimut’s Malartic property was the scene of a four-hole program to test extensions of the property’s H zone — on the Marban-Norlartic trend, a mineralized corridor between the main Cadillac break and Lac Malartic. All four holes intersected gold mineralization.

The best results came from hole 54-25, which intersected six separate zones with significant gold values. The highest-grade intersection was a 0.9-metre length that graded 42.7 grams gold per tonne; the other five ranged from 0.7 metres grading 4.3 grams, to 2.25 metres grading 7.9 grams. The widest intersection was 2.9 metres, with an average grade of 3.9 grams.

The three other holes all cut the H zone. In hole 54-24, drilled west of 54-25, a 6.6-metre core length graded 1.6 grams gold. Immediately to the south (and updip), hole 54-27 encountered 1.4 metres grading 1.7 grams. The third hole, 54-26, drilled south of 54-25, cut a 2.2-metre interval grading 2.3 grams gold.

Based on its own results, and on holes drilled by previous operators, Azimut believes the H zone is about 800 metres long and dips about 65 to the east. It is 1-10 metres thick and is open downdip at 200 metres.

The zone is hosted by mafic or ultramafic volcanic rocks, which are intruded by felsic dykes. The gold is in altered bodies with disseminated pyrite and secondary plagioclase, quartz and carbonate, and also in stockwork-style veins. Azimut is earning a 55% interest from Breakwater Resources (BWR-T).

To the west, about 10 km northwest of the Dave Keon Arena in Rouyn-Noranda, Azimut is earning a half-interest in the Flavrian property by funding exploration for project operator Cambior (CBJ-T). Five holes on the property tested strike extensions of the structure hosting the Graham showing, a gold occurrence in the Flavrian granodiorite pluton.

The five holes intersected narrow zones of quartz veinlets (0.5 to 2.2 metres wide), with gold grades ranging from 2.6 to 4.5 grams per tonne. The structure, which strikes east-northeasterly and dips to the south at a shallow angle (between 30 and 60), may also be the structural extension of a gold zone 200 metres to the east, investigated in 1997 and 1998 by Abcourt Mines (ABI.B-M). In 1997, Abcourt encountered mineralized intersections of similar width, with grades between 5.6 and 38.5 grams gold.