Melkior drills Carscallen gold project in Ontario

Melkior Resources (TSXV: MKR; US-OTC: MKRIF) has released results from two drill holes at the company’s wholly-owned Carscallen gold project in the Abitibi Greenstone belt, 3 km north of the Porcupine Destor Fault and 25 km southwest of the city of Timmins in north-eastern Ontario.

The drill holes were part of a 1,950-metre infill drill program completed in March. The first hole, 20-05, intersected 6 metres grading 25.7 grams gold per tonne from 357 metres downhole, including 0.7 metre of 205 grams gold per tonne. The second hole, 20-04, cut 4 metres grading 4.2 grams gold starting from 334 metres downhole, including 1 metre of 15.8 grams gold.

“Drilling started in February and was a follow-up to our November program,” Jonathon Deluce, Melkior’s CEO said in a telephone interview. “The first hole was used to confirm our interpretation of the structure of the gold mineralisation, and the second was intended to extend the strike of the gold-bearing system.”

Core from drill hole 20-04 showing semi-massive bornite and chalcopyrite. Photo Credit: Melkior Resources.

The November drill program covered 1,300 meters, one of the highlights of which was drill hole 19-03A. The hole was drilled 25 metres east and 100 metres down-dip of the intersection in hole 20-04. Hole 19-03A intersected 8 metres grading 23.5 grams gold starting 426 downhole with a higher grade core of 0.5 metre grading 372 grams gold.

The November program revealed a gold-bearing fault over 1 km in length and open on strike and at depth, Deluce said, with the latest drill results confirming a significant gold-bearing system that continues below the granodiorite and into the mafic metavolcanics below, and extends to depths beyond 400 metres.

The results, said Deluce, also confirmed the presence of a disseminated copper zone during the November campaign, with drill hole 19-03A also returning 6 metres grading 0.127% copper and 81 metres grading 0.036% copper starting from 432 metres. In addition, the drill hole cut 36 metres grading 0.067% zinc, starting from 513 metres downhole, and immediately below the copper anomaly. 

“Although the hole returned quite low copper grades, the results were quite significant for us because they provided further indication of a potential volcanogenic massive sulphides deposit rather than just purely a hybrid gold structure,” Deluce explained. “This also led us to conduct the latest drill program to locate the source of the copper we’d been hitting.” 

Drill hole 20-04 intersected 19 metres of 0.1% copper from 473 metres downhole, including 0.5 metre of 8.7% copper and 33.9 grams silver per tonne starting 513 metres downhole. Drill hole 20-05 returned 2 metres of 0.3% copper from 513 metres downhole.

According to Deluce, the high levels of copper found in the underlying mafic metavolcanics, and the elevated zinc values below the copper, could suggest the presence of a copper feeder to the volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit. Such deposits are common to the Timmins Camp of Ontario, he said.

Over the past six years, the company has drilled over 33,000 meters and discovered several high-grade gold zones. It is currently waiting for the results from a mise-a-la-masse geophysical survey.

The technique utilizes the conductive mass in the drill hole as one of the electrodes to aid in determining the geometry and strike extent of the conductive mass.

At press time in Toronto, Melkior Resources was trading at 39¢ per share within a 52-week trading range of 6¢ and 45¢.

The company has around 19 million common shares outstanding for a $7.6-million market capitalization.