Golden Hope’s Bellechasse project yields high-grade gold on surface

Samples taken from a heavily mineralized shear zone within the Bellechasse greenstone belt in Quebec have returned some remarkable gold values along a 125-ft. strike length. Of the 27 5-lb. samples taken from previously unexplored ground, 18 returned grades of more than 0.1 oz. per ton gold while eight returned values of 1-28 oz. Visible gold was seen in nine of the samples.

The grassroots exploration effort, focused on 262 claims 65 miles southeast of Quebec City, comes on the heels of a limited partnership agreement between property- owner Golden Hope Mines (COATS), St. Genevieve Resources (TSE) and Exploration Duverny (ME).

St. Genevieve and Duverny, a subsidiary of Stratmin (ME), have the option to earn a 50% interest in the property from Golden Hope by spending $9 million on exploration over three years. At least $2 million must be spent by August next year.

“In all of Quebec, I have never seen such an exciting project area,” said Roger Doucet, vice-president of exploration for St. Genevieve. “I think we will have some more surprises.”

The project area covers about 18 miles of the Bellechasse mineral belt, an alignment of mineral occurrences including massive sulphides and gold-bearing quartz veins. This winter, after further stripping and channel sampling on the new gold occurrence and other base and precious metal showings on the property, Doucet plans to move 3-4 drill rigs on to the most prospective areas.

The new gold occurrence, zone 88, was discovered underneath a soil geochemical anomaly within a heavily silicified shear zone rich in sulphides and visible gold. Mineralization is scattered within quartz veins across a minimum width of 15 ft. and across the full length of the 100×200-ft. stripped area. Both the mineralized zone and the wall rock gabbro were sampled and assayed, according to the metallic sieve method.

Stockworks of gold-bearing quartz veins, including the 88 zone, have returned spectacular gold values of up to 30 oz. However, because of the erratic nature of the gold mineralization, bulk samples taken for metallurgical tests in the past have graded 0.09-0.80 oz. gold, and former owners have been unable to prove the existence of a continuous Sigma or Lamaque-type deposit in the area.

The partners will also be investigating the Champagne deposit, discovered in the 1950s and estimated to contain about 300,000 tons of mineralized material grading 2.7% zinc, 0.5% lead, 0.4% copper and 0.062 oz. gold per ton. The deposit occurs within the black shales of the Magog group basin.

The original deal between the partners (T.N.M, Apr. 30/90) has been changed somewhat to satisfy the Quebec Securities Commission. Rather than divide the property into the three parts, the mining claims will be considered one property and financing commitments will be shared by St. Genevieve (66.6%) and Duverny (33.3%).