Garrcon coming into sharper focus for Northern Gold

Northern Gold Mining (NGM-V) continues to advance its Garrison project in northern Ontario in leaps and bounds.

The latest milestone for the company is the first ever measured resource on its most important zone, the Garrcon deposit.

That higher quality of resource also came with a 77% increase in overall resources as measured resources at the deposit now stand at 17.6 million tonnes grading 1.06 grams gold for 604,000 oz. of gold.

When combined with indicated resources, the total measured and indicated resource climbs to 38.5 million tonnes grading 1.03 grams for 1.3 million oz. and of that roughly 822,000 oz. of gold occurs above a depth of 200 metres.

Inferred resource now stands at 15.8 million tonne grading 0.72 grams for 367,000 oz.

Those numbers were compiled using a cut-off grade of 0.3 grams gold per tonne and a gold price of $US1,500 per oz.

The deposit remains open to the north, east, west and at depth. In an effort to further prove-up the deposit and expand it, both in-fill and step-out drilling are on going. Indeed the company says it has drilled another 25,000 metres since the data cutoff point for the most recent resource estimate.

The mineralized zone is described as being nearly vertical, 1,225 metres long, up to 650 meters deep and 300 meters wide.

And recent drilling brought the promise of future tonnage coming from beyond the northern boundary of the deposit. Northern Gold previously had little hope to the north because that is where a gold-barren ultramafic body emerges. Drilling done further north of the ultramafic discovered what it now calls the Green Zone. The Green Zone is described as a constrained mineralized domain and while the full extent of mineralization is not yet known the company says reduces the amount of barren rock between Garrcon deposit and the other known deposit on the property: Jonpol.

A preliminary economic study released in June of last year outlines a mine that would produce 130,000 oz. of gold per year over an eight year mine life at cash costs of US$495 per oz. The study estimated that it would cost $156.3 million to build the mine and that it would generate a net present value of $265.9 million.

Northern Gold plans to have a feasibility study done on the project by sometime early next year.

In Toronto on April 19 the company’s shares were up 4% or 1¢ to 24¢ on 262,000 shares traded.