Holmer to accelerate drilling on advanced exploration bets

The sale of 300,000 flow-through shares at $1 per share to Northgate Exploration (TSE) has enabled Holmer Gold Mines (ASE) to accelerate exploration at a couple of advanced exploration programs in Ontario and Quebec.

The flow-through agreement increases Northgate’s equity stake in Holmer to 27% on a fully diluted basis and the former company has been granted an additional 300,000 non-flow-through common shares at $1.15 per share.

At Holmer’s Chibougamau mine joint venture in Quebec where Campbell Resources (TSE) is earning a 50% interest, a 5,200-ft drill program has produced some encouraging results in all four areas tested.

They included intercepts in new potential areas of the main “A” zone structure which assayed 0.2 oz gold per ton over 3.6 ft, 0.14 oz over 5.4 ft and 0.27 oz over 1.8 ft. The A zone was mined for copper during the 1960s.

In the northern portion of the property, a single deep hole intersected a new zone which may represent the faulted extension of the ore zone, now being mined on Campbell’s adjoining Cedar Bay mine to the east.

According to Holmer spokesman Jim Lay, the results warrant an aggressive and expanded exploration program which is scheduled to begin almost immediately.

The proposed drilling program will test extensions of gold-copper mineralization and could lead to either a reopening of the Quebec Chibougamau Mine or underground exploration of the zone via the Cedar Bay mine.

Meanwhile, drilling at Holmer’s Bristol Twp. joint venture property near Timmins, Ont., has confirmed the existence of a major alteration zone extending at least 1,000 ft along strike.

Under a recent agreement, Chevron Canada Resources is spending $2.2 million on exploration to earn a 50% interest in the property.

The zone is up to 200 ft wide and extends down dip for at least 600 ft. Multiple vein structures with significant gold values occur within the alteration zone and some of the intercepts assayed 0.278 oz gold over 25.3 ft, 0.24 oz over 18.1 ft and 0.338 oz over 11.1 ft.

Follow-up drilling will test extensions of known gold mineralization as well as other priority targets identified by recent surveys on the property, said Lay.