Moneta Porcupine drills more high grade at Golden Highway

One of the oldest companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Moneta Porcupine Mines (TSX: ME; US-OTC: MPUCF), believes it has found a new zone of gold mineralization at its Golden Highway project, 100 km east of Timmins, Ontario.

Drilling 1 km to the west of the project’s South West deposit and 500 metres from the company’s recent Westaway discovery intersected 4 metres grading 8.09 grams gold per tonne starting 379 metres downhole, including a high-grade core of 1 metre grading 30.40 grams from 380 metres.

“The latest drill result is very exciting, as it appears that we have discovered new gold mineralization zone at the South BIF target,” Gary O’Connor, the company’s CEO and chief geologist, said in an interview. “The hole cut through mineralized gold veins along the southern margins of the sedimentary basin and adjacent to the recently discovered favourable BIF A host contact.”

The South BIF target appears to show a series of mineralized vein structures that dip steeply in a west-northwest to east-southeast direction. Mineralization at the target is similar to that at South West and Westaway.

“The veins could be extensions of the Westaway gold veins, which were recently discovered around 500 metres to the north,” O’Connor said. “They could represent a new regional trend of the prospective ground at the Golden Highway project, where little or no systematic exploration has been conducted previously, and so the find could represent a major new prospective trend.”

An aerial view looking east at the Windjammer gold zones at Moneta Porcupine’s Golden Highway gold project in northern Ontario. Source: Moneta Porcupine

The latest assays are from the company’s 2019/2020 winter drill program, with hole 20-148 targeting favourable coarse-grain sandstone sediments adjacent to the newly discovered banded iron formation unit and near the southern margins of the Timiskaming sedimentary basin.

“After building up targets last year, we pulled out some of the old core samples from the 1980s, and there was an old 1987 hole, which had been drilled into the margins of the basin,” O’Connor said. “Within that unit, they had actually drilled through our prospective sandstone unit and the older BIF A unit.”

“We found several new gold mineralized vein deposits after sinking hole 20-148,” he said.

The Golden Highway project consists of six known deposits: South West, West Block, Windjammer North, 55, Windjammer South and Discovery.

The project contains indicated resources of 3.82 million tonnes grading 4.53 grams gold per tonne for 556,500 contained oz. gold, with inferred resources of 8.48 million tonnes grading 4.31 grams gold for 1.7 million ounces, at a cut-off grade of 3 grams gold.

The resource is open in all directions with excellent potential for expansion, O’Connor said.

The company is working on a PEA that will review several development scenarios for the South West deposit and is slated for completion by the end of the year.

The project covers 12 km of the prospective Destor-Porcupine Fault (DPFZ) — one of the most prolific Archean gold-bearing structures in the Timmins gold camp.

“We’re the only junior with a sizeable land position and large mineral resource in the area, which we are looking to expand by targeting the historic high-grade targets uncovered by previous explorers,” O’Connor said.

The company plans to complete more drilling to expand its resources and finish the PEA before year-end. It will also evaluate the potential for either building its own mill or sending mineralized material from the project to one of the six existing mills in the area.

At press time in Toronto, Moneta Porcupine was trading at 17¢ per share within a 52-week trading range of 6¢ and 18¢.

The company has around 312 million common shares outstanding for a $54.52-million market capitalization.