Kiena drilling hints at extensions

A 9-hole drilling program by McWatters Mining (MCW-T) at its Kiena gold mine in northwestern Quebec has indicated possible extensions to the producing North zone.

Six of the nine holes intersected significant gold values in areas that had been selected based on a geological compilation McWatters started in late 1998. The compilation project assembled results from a program of geochemical analyses on drill cores and surface bedrock samples in the area surrounding the Kiena deposit.

Mineralization at Kiena was historically thought to be concentrated along volcanic contacts, but litho-geochemical data suggest it also is developed along komatiite and basalt horizons and in shears and dilation zones that crosscut the volcanic package. Hydrothermal alteration of the rocks, detectable by mapping rock composition, was strongly developed around areas with known gold mineralization, especially where the rocks were structurally disrupted.

Hole S-438, which was collared 300 metres southeast of the North zone, intersected a 3.6-metre core length grading 5 grams gold per tonne, about 175 metres vertically above an intersection in a previous hole drilled from Kiena’s underground workings. The underground hole had graded 12.5 grams over a length of 3 metres.

A second hole, S-440, drilled from a collar 800 metres southeast of the North zone, cut a 3-metre intersection grading an average of 7.1 grams gold per tonne and a second intersection, 1 metre wide, grading 3.6 grams. In a third hole, S-446, which was drilled between the other two, a 3-metre intersection graded 8.3 grams per tonne.

Two other holes intersected comparable grades over narrower widths (about 1 metre), and another two cut 1-metre intervals with gold grades between 1 and 2 grams per tonne.