EXPLORATION 1999 — Gold hunters eye northwestern Ontario — Pele Mountain, Moss Lake among juniors most active in region

Even though the earliest gold production in Ontario came from the region west of Lake Superior, the area has long played the Abitibi’s poor relation. Still, recent exploration activity has brought renewed attention to the Shebandowan and Rainy River greenstone belts.

The highest profile of late has belonged to Pele Mountain Resources (PELE-C), which has a program under way at the Ardeen Mine property, about 110 km west of Thunder Bay. Pele Mountain is currently evaluating drill results and resource estimates on the project.

Production from Ardeen started as early as the 1890s, and continued, in fits and starts, until the 1930s. The mine exploited veins in a strongly silicified shear zone, but there was little drilling along the favourable structures.

Pele’s program started in 1996 with geophysics, mapping and extensive stripping. So far the company has done about 12,000 metres of drilling, intersecting gold mineralization in five different zones. The intersections included some high-grade results, suggesting that the gold at Ardeen can be erratic. For the five zones taken together, the company’s consultants have estimated an inferred resource of 1.1 million tonnes grading 14.4 grams gold per tonne.

Pele Mountain plans to have a drill back on the property this field season, to test extensions of the known mineralization at depth.

Developments at Ardeen change the picture for the nearby Moss Lake gold deposit, held by Moss Lake Gold Mines (MOK-T), an affiliate of River Gold Mines (RIV-T). Moss Lake is two gold deposits in one — a large, low-grade deposit (60 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams gold per tonne) contains a higher-grade core zone (460,000 tonnes at 6.7 grams). The deposit was last drilled in 1996, and Moss Lake Gold has been looking for a joint-venture partner. The potential for other operations in the area offers hope that the economics of a mine and mill at Moss Lake could improve.

On that score, Landis Mining (LIS-A) recently drilled three holes into its Fountain Lake prospect, immediately southeast of the Moss Lake property. The target was the downdip extension of an induced-polarization anomaly on the Moss Lake ground.

Two of the three holes intersected mineralization, and all showed mineralogical alteration with secondary quartz, feldspar, muscovite and pyrite. Hole FL-1 cut a 22.9-metre length with multiple mineralized zones and an average grade of 1.1 grams gold per tonne; this included 1.7 metres grading 3.3 grams, and two 1.5-metre intersections, one grading 8.9 grams, and the other, 3.2 grams.

FL-2 intersected 25.5 metres averaging 0.38 gram gold per tonne; included in it was a 5.8-metre interval with a grade of 0.64 gram per tonne, 10.6 metres that graded 0.54 gram, and 1.7 metres that ran 1.2 grams.

Farther to the southwest, Band-Ore Resources (BAN-T) has done some initial investigation of the Q-9 showing at Cunniah Lake, about 20 km south of the Moss Twp. prospects. More drilling of the strike extension of the showing beneath the lake would have been done, but a January thaw chased the drillers off the ice.

Trenching of the showing at surface yielded a 423-kg bulk sample, which was split into 16 samples for assaying. These returned gold values between 224 and 622 grams per tonne, and an average (allowing for different sample weights) of 356 grams gold per tonne. The bulk sample’s silver content, again averaged by weight, was 850 grams per tonne.

Drill results were a little more modest, with one hole intersecting a 1.1-metre interval that graded 25.5 grams gold and 92 grams silver per tonne. Eleven other holes intersected narrow mineralized zones with grades of 2.5 grams gold and less. Still, the program has established that the mineralization is held in an east-striking shear zone with chlorite and carbonate alteration, and plainly the gold is distributed erratically.

New in the area is TNK Resources (TNKR-C), which has taken an option to earn a 50% interest in the Wolf Lake property, six claims immediately west of the Band-Ore ground held by International Capri Resources (ICQ-V). TNK will spend $100,000 by the end of 1999 and another $100,000 by the end of July 2000 to earn its interest, and Capri will also receive $100,000 cash and 100,000 TNK shares. Capri drilled a gold showing on the property in February, and assay results are pending.

Over in the Rainy River area, Nuinsco Resources (NWI-T) is ready to take another swing at projects centred around Richardson Twp., 50 km northwest of Fort Frances. Previous partner Inco (N-T), which inherited a block of Nuinsco shares and an interest in the properties from Diamond Fields Resources, dropped out of the project in 1996, but a highly successful financing this year netted Nuinsco $10 million for work on its Lac Rocher nickel-copper project in Quebec and for further work in the Rainy River area.

The Richardson mineralization is a geochemical discovery. Nuinsco found a southwesterly trending glacial dispersion train in 1993 when it followed up on the Ontario Geological Survey’s 1987 program of reconnaissance sonic drilling, which had intersected glacial till with significant gold concentrations in southern Richardson Twp. Overburden drilling (using both reverse-circulation and sonic drills) has defined a dispersion train about 25 km long, 3 km wide at its northeastern end, and 10-km wide farther down-ice.

At the head of the train, Nuinsco recovered bedrock samples that showed gold values of 10 parts per billion (0.01 gram per tonne) and higher; and enclosed by this bedrock anomaly was the 17 Zone, a roughly east-striking structure where diamond drilling encountered intersections grading between 1 and 15 grams per tonne.

The 17 Zone is in highly altered dacites, and Nuinsco originally set up its holes to drill directly across the strike of the bedding. Starting in 1996, Nuinsco tried some diagonal holes that encountered significantly higher gold grades — generally 2.5 to 5 grams per tonne. Seemingly the structures controlling the gold mineralization are not parallel to the plane of the bedding.

Nuinsco’s plans include more core drilling on the 17 Zone and reverse-circulation drilling in the overburden up-ice, to see if there are any other bedrock sources for the gold in the dispersion train.

One-time Nuinsco partner (and now Nuinsco shareholder) Western Troy Capital (WRY-A) still has its property in Menary Twp., north and east of the main Nuinsco ground. The company’s last drill program was in November 1997.