Vancouver — Partners
Dubbed Naartok, the zone has been tested by 18 holes over a strike length of 350 metres and to a depth of 200 metres.
“This is the first discovery of a potential new gold deposit at Hope Bay since we acquired the project and since the Doris deposit was discovered in 1995,” says David Fennell, president of Hope Bay Gold.
Assay results have been received from seven of the holes, and all intervals are quoted as true width. The following are highlights:
– Hole 92 — 34.8 metres grading 6.9 grams gold per tonne, including 7.6 metres grading 21.4 grams gold.
– Hole 93 — 8.5 metres grading 8.2 grams gold, including 2.1 metres of 19.1 grams gold. Farther down-hole, another interval assayed 11.5 grams gold over 1.7 metres.
– Hole 94 — 12.9 metres grading 22.2 grams gold and including a 0.4-metre section of 439.8 grams gold. Farther down-hole, a 2.6-metre section assayed 18.6 grams gold.
– Hole 95 — 16.9 metres grading 14.5 grams gold, including 10 metres of 17.6 grams gold.
– Hole 99 — 10.5 metres grading 29 grams gold, including a 5.4-metre section grading 48 grams gold.
Says Miramar President Anthony Walsh: “We intend to evaluate systematically the potential of Naartok, and of the adjacent Matrim zone, which has been traced over 1,000 metres of strike.”
Drilling at Naartok has defined a west-trending, steeply north-dipping zone of disseminated stockwork and breccia-style gold-pyrite mineralization. The mineralization is associated with carbonate-sericite-silica-albite alteration and hosted in mafic volcanic rocks. It is situated in the hangingwall of a west-trending zone of highly sheared rock known as the Deformation zone. The zone consists of several generations of quartz veinlets, breccia and alteration. The highest gold grades are said to be associated with a younger quartz stockwork and breccia.
Moving 400 metres to the east, two holes have been completed at the Matrim zone. Holes 111 and 112 were drilled to test the projected northern margin of the Deformation zone.
Hole 112 cut three zones grading 6.1 grams gold over 33.8 metres, 8.2 grams gold over 12.8 metres, and 8.9 grams gold over 3.9 metres. Results from hole 111 are pending.
Southeast of the Madrid deposit, four holes tested the Penn zone, southeast of the Madrid deposit. Previous drilling in hole 81 cut 7.1 metres grading 18.2 grams gold. All four holes intersected weak-to-moderate quartz-carbonate-sericite alteration but failed to encounter any significant mineralization.
The current program is part of an initial, $10-million phase of work that includes 17,000 metres of diamond drilling designed to extend the known deposits and 6,300 metres of reverse-circulation drilling to test new targets. Up to seven rigs are being used on the surface, with two reserved for underground.
Last year’s drilling resulted in a new resource calculation at three gold deposits. Two of the property’s three defined gold deposits emerged with estimates substantially smaller than those calculated by the previous owner, BHP; this is partly due to the use of tighter grade criteria.
The biggest of the deposits, Boston, which lies near the southern end of the belt, has 1.3 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 15.2 grams gold per tonne. A further 2.6 million tonnes grading 10.9 grams is in the inferred category.
At Doris North, near the northern end of the belt, the partners have outlined measured and indicated resources of 710,000 tonnes grading an average of 21.2 grams per tonne, and inferred resources of 957,000 tonnes grading 16.9 grams.
At the Madrid deposit, about 8 km south of Doris, the measured and indicated resource is estimated at 328,000 tonnes grading 7.3 grams, with additional inferred resources of 744,000 tonnes running 9.3 grams.
A significant portion of the planned program involves the testing of new prospects along the 80-km strike length of the greenstone belt. “There is no shortage of opportunities for the discovery of new deposits,” says Fennell. “In fact, we have an overabundance of targets.”
The Hope Bay property is situated 650 km northeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T.
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