Gold Canyon thinks it has found a starter pit at Springpole

Gold Canyon Resources (GCU-V) has pulled in more stellar drill results at its Springpole gold project. And this time they come from a less heralded part of the property.

While Springpole – which is in the Red Lake district of northwestern Ontario – has grabbed much attention for the intercepts encountered in the Portage zone, the latest results were highlighted by two holes that were both drilled along the southwest margin of what is known as the East Extension zone.

The better of the two returned 24 meters grading 17.48 grams per tonne gold including 6 meters grading 52.60 grams per tonne gold. The other hole returned 39 meters grading 2.93 grams per tonne gold including 1 meter at 39.73 grams per tonne gold.

Both holes were collared at the same spot, but drilled at different degrees and directions to test whether historical drill work done on the zone was accurate.

Gold Canyon says the two holes not only confirm the historic results but also improved upon the older holes in terms of showing better continuity.

“Although East Extension is a smaller target than the Portage Zone, it could potentially make a good starter pit,” Quinton Hennigh, a technical advisor to and director of Gold Canyon said in a statement.

Also bullish for the company is that when combined with the corridor of near-surface mineralization discovered in drilling between the Portage Zone and East Extension last summer the two deposits may ultimately be connected.

The company also announced that recent holes drilled at Portage have now led the company to believe that the zone dips moderately to steeply northeast as opposed to southwest as previously believed.

On a less positive front, the company said its drilling campaign is being hampered by the forest fires in northwestern Ontario.

The impact on the project has been that it is harder for the company to secure the helicopters it needs to lift drills on-to and off-of barges as the helicopters are needed to fight the fires.

“Due to this and other fire related issues, the company’s summer drill program has experienced slower core production than planned. Dry and warm weather conditions persist and the Springpole base camp remains on high alert,” the company said in a statement.

On a day when markets were getting battered – the TSX Composite Index was down over 460 points – Gold Canyon managed to scratch out a 2¢ gain to finish the day at $2.27 on 827,000 shares traded.