St. John’s, Nfld. —
Since mid-2001, Rubicon has established district-scale land positions in half a dozen regions of “The Rock” by staking more than 10,000 claims totalling more than 2,000 sq. km. Acquisitions have been largely prospector-driven.
Rubicon and its partners are spending several million dollars this year on island exploration, and it’s the first year of drilling on many of the properties. “This is obviously a big year for us,” says Michael Gray, Rubicon’s vice-president of exploration. “We’re really ramping up the drilling.”
Six projects have been drilled so far this year, with two drilling campaigns now in progress.
Rubicon Chairman Garfield McVeigh cannot say enough about the supportive policies of the Newfoundland and Labrador government, including exploration incentive programs. “It’s a powerful influence on bringing partners here to Newfoundland,” he says.
The junior exploration assistance program provides funding for half of eligible costs in the form of a non-repayable grant of up to $100,000 per project on the island of Newfoundland and up to $150,000 per project in Labrador. Government funding for the year totalled $1.4 million, with Rubicon and its partners snagging a good chunk.
In September 2003, Rubicon optioned the Golden Promise project, a grassroots discovery in north-central Newfoundland, to Placer Dome, which can earn an initial 55% interest by spending $5 million over five years, including $1.5 million before the end of 2004. Rubicon will remain the operator of the project until the earn-in is completed. Placer can boost its interest to 70% by delivering a bankable feasibility study by the end of 2009.
Rubicon originally acquired the property in the spring of 2002, following the discovery, by local prospector William Mercer, of large, gold-bearing quartz boulders in an area with no record of any staking or gold exploration. The so-called Jaclyn discovery was made 15 km southeast of the town of Badger. A composite grab sample from 10 of the boulders had assayed 30 grams. Follow-up sampling by Rubicon geologists of angular boulders scattered across an area of 650 metres yielded bonanza-grade values of up to 353 grams (or 10.3 oz.) gold per tonne.
In August 2002, after trenching exposed a banded quartz vein zone carrying locally abundant visible gold in bedrock, Rubicon tested 225 metres of strike length with 21 holes drilled to a vertical depth of only 50 metres. Of the 17 holes that intersected the vein zone, all but two contained visible gold. Selected highlights included 69 grams gold over a core length of 0.4 metre (estimated true width of 0.21 metre), 11.4 grams over 2.2 metres (1.8 metres true width), 16.6 grams over 2.5 metres (1.6 metres true width), 7.05 grams over 4.9 metres (2.2 metres true width), 17.7 grams over 2.3 metres (0.94 metre true width), and 31.6 grams over half a metre (0.34 metre true width).
The Jaclyn zone is a sediment-hosted, narrow, high-grade, sub-vertical quartz vein zone that ranges in thickness from 10 cm to 4 metres, with individual veins ranging up to 2.7 metres in thickness.
During a second round of drilling funded by Placer in late 2003, another nine holes on the Jaclyn zone extended the strike length to 375 metres. This drilling confirmed that the mineralized system continues to a depth of at least 190 metres by intersecting 36.1 grams gold across 0.3 metre. However, 75-to-100-metre step-outs beyond the confirmed strike length on either end of the zone failed to intersect any significant veining or mineralization. The boulder train associated with the Jaclyn zone is 2 km long.
Two additional vein systems were discovered while drilling boulder trains sub-parallel to the main Jaclyn zone, 350 metres to the south and 220 metres to the north. The drilling of three holes showed the Jaclyn North and Jaclyn South zones to be underlain by highly altered sedimentary stratigraphy that hosts multiple, visible gold-bearing quartz veins similar to those encountered in the Jaclyn zone. The best intercept in Jaclyn South was a 0.3-metre interval grading 45 grams gold. A single hole at Jaclyn North returned multiple intercepts of 7.4 grams across half a metre, 12.1 grams over 0.3 metre and 12.3 grams across 0.3 metre.
Limited reconnaissance prospecting in 2002 and 2003 led to the discovery of visible gold-bearing quartz boulders or gold-in-bedrock showings in four separate areas along a 19-km-long, northeasterly trend. It is this district-wide potential that caught the attention of Placer Dome, says McVeigh. “Their approach is to really look at the camp perspective.”
Down-ice of Jaclyn, 3.5 km to the northeast, is a cluster of quartz float material that contains up to 356 grams gold. More than 8 km away, a bedrock showing delivered a 56-gram grab sample. In the southwest, 8.5 km up-ice from Jaclyn, Rubicon uncovered visible gold-bearing quartz vein float in outcrop along the Exploits River that assayed 35 grams gold. Quartz float at the Justin’s Hope occurrence, 7 km southwest of Jaclyn, yielded up to 10 grams.
These gold showings occur on trend sub-parallel to the Red Indian line, a major suture that divides the host rocks of the Dunnage zone in the Central Mobile belt with those of the Gondwanan (Gander and Avalon zones) and Laurentian (Humber zone) affinity. The Dunnage zone consists of volcanic, volcaniclastic and sedimentary rocks formed in island-arc and back-arc settings during the opening and closing of the ancient Iapetus Ocean. The Red Indian line is an extensive fault system that, according to interpretation, separates rocks originating from opposing sides of the Iapetus Ocean that were not linked until late Devonian time.
The gold-bearing mineralized systems in the Dunnage zone show a strong spatial relationship with mid-to-late Silurian granitic intrusions, and to major terrain bounding faults, says Charles Tarnocal, a senior geologist with Placer Dome.
The Golden Promise project comprises 537 sq. km in a fault-bounded belt of folded Lower Ordovician to Silurian metasedimentary rocks of the Victoria Lake Group and the Caradoc shale. The property is underlain by Badger Group sediments, a turbidite shale sequence. The stratigraphy has been deformed by tight-to-isoclinal, upright, northeast-plunging anticline folds.
Quartz veins and fault zones throughout the area strike northeast and appear to be related to deformation during the formation of F1 folds, which typically have chevron-like forms. Fault-fill veins occur in northeast- and southwest-dipping thrusts, close to the axial trace of F1 folds.
The gold-bearing quartz veins of the Jaclyn vein are described as milky white to grey, comb-textured to locally vuggy, laminated to banded, and inclusion-rich (indicative of open-space filling in an extentional shear setting). Alteration varies from distal chlorite to a proximal zone of sericite-ankerite-arsenopyrite.
The gold is nuggety in nature and occurs in four forms: as 0.1-mm specks to coarser, 3-mm flakes along short fractures oriented perpendicular to the vein margin; along laminated seams with associated fine-grained arsenopyrite; as scattered specks along rusty fractures parallel to the vein boundary; and less commonly, as isolated grains in massive quartz.
The style of veining, mineralization, alteration, host rock and tectonic setting of Golden Promise has drawn comparisons by Rubicon and Placer to other turbidite-hosted gold deposits in the world, such as the Bendigo camp in the Central Victoria goldfields of Australia, and the Meguma terrain of Nova Scotia. Indeed, Placer’s Tarnocal, who spoke at the annual conference of the Newfoundland branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, held recently in St. John’s, called Golden Promise a “Bendigo-style occurrence.”
Discovered in 1851, the Bendigo gold camp ranks behind Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile as the second-largest producing goldfield in Australia. By the time mining ceased in 1954, something in the order of 22 million oz. had been mined (including 18 million oz. of hard-rock production and 4 million oz. of alluvial production) from the thousands of small mining leases that historically supported some 1,300 different mining companies. The most productive portion of the Bendigo district came from 15 anticlines in an area measuring 15 km long by 5 km wide. “You could fit several Bendigos in the Golden Promise project area,” says McVeigh.
Placer budgeted $760,000 for proposed exploration work on Golden Promise in 2004. In April, a 5-hole, 1,000-metre program of reconnaissance drilling tested prospective geochemical and geological targets, away from the Jaclyn zone, without encountering any significant results.
Further prospecting in the summer identified two new gold-bearing veins. The Christopher showing was exposed in trenching 500 metres southwest of Jaclyn along strike. Grab sampling of float and subcrop had returned gold values of up to 3.8 grams. The new zone averages 1-2 metres thick over an exposed strike length of 35 metres, with visible gold found at one spot. An outcropping, 0.3-metre-wide vein was discovered a further 7.5 km to the southwest. This new showing, called Shawn’s Shot, returned up to 100 grams in grab sampling.
Reconnaissance drilling resumed at Golden Promise in November, with up to eight holes planned.
A separate package of claim blocks along trend, and southwest, of the Jaclyn discovery was optioned by Rubicon in February 2003 to
Trenching
Ongoing trenching has focused on a cluster of quartz float boulders and subcrop, dubbed Snow White, where five of 29 grab samples returned assays ranging from 1.47 to 9.59 grams. Test pitting in the immediate area of the boulder field has exposed quartz veins in bedrock measuring 1.5 metres in thickness and containing local visible gold. A series of five grab samples collected over the 5-metre exposed length of the vein returned bonanza values of 105 grams and 42 grams in two of the samples. The other three samples yielded assays of 0.16, 0.82 and 5.12 grams.
The bedrock source of two other nearby quartz boulder clusters, 75 and 100 metres southwest of Snow White, has also been exposed in trenching. Grab sampling is highlighted by a value of 2.09 grams.
The new discoveries are 21 km southwest of Jaclyn and have prompted Rubicon to stake an additional 105 sq. km along trend. These new claims will be included as part of the existing option agreement with Crosshair.
Earlier this year, Rubicon enticed Iamgold to Newfoundland with the potential its Avalon project holds for low-sulphidation epithermal gold mineralization. Avalon covers 140 sq. km at the southeastern end of the province, about 18 km west and northwest of St. John’s. Rubicon first acquired the package of ground based on several prospector-discovered gold showings, and by the continuing work of Sean O’Brien of the Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador, who recognized signs of low-sulphidation epithermal mineralization in Neoproterozoic veins and breccias in the Avalon zone.
Rubicon’s Avalon project represents Iamgold’s first venture in Canada. The company was attracted to Newfoundland by its various under-explored geological settings, favourable fiscal regime, and “mining-friendly” policies, says Dennis Jones, Iamgold’s vice-president of exploration.
The low-sulphidation epithermal style of mineralization is a familiar target for Iamgold, as it is exploring for the same type of deposit in Argentina and Ecuador.
Iamgold can earn an initial 55% interest in the Avalon project by spending $3 million on exploration over four years, including $500,000 before February 2005. Rubicon will remain operator of the project for the first two years or until $2 million has been spent. Iamgold will have the right to earn additional 15% by delivering a bankable feasibility study of a deposit of at least 500,000 oz. by the end of 2013.
A 10-hole, 2,000-metre drilling program got under way in October on the Steep Nap prospect. Grab samples from the vein system have yielded up to 4.4 grams in hematitic, crustiform and chalcedonic quartz veins traced over a strike length of at least 600 metres.
Rubicon has optioned its Huxter Lane project to Meridian Gold, which can earn a 55% stake in the 13.5-sq.-km property by spending $1 million on exploration over four years. The gold target is intrusion-related.
Rubicon conducted 5,281 metres of drilling on three wholly owned projects in 2004: H-Pond, Golden Bullet and Startrack. A new grassroots gold discovery at H-Pond, 10 km west of the town of Gander in the central part of the province, highlights Rubicon’s 2004 exploration efforts. The reconnaissance drilling of eight widely spaced holes intersected multiple gold-bearing quartz vein zones while crews tested the source of high-grade float in two separate areas 3.5 km apart.
The H-Pond discovery occurs at the northern end of the so-called Joe Batt’s Pond linear feature, in the Glenwood Break area of the northern Botwood Basin. Rubicon holds more than 2,500 claims in the immediate area, of which 1,595 are under option to Crosshair. This land position was originally acquired based on the notion that many of the historical gold showings and panned gold occurrences in the area are aligned along northeast-oriented linear features. McVeigh credits local prospector Al Keats for promoting the linear concept in the Botwood-Glenwood trend. The package of properties centres on the Mt. Peyton intrusive complex, where gold has been found both inboard and outboard of the intrusion. For the most part, the rock units are Ordovician and Silurian sediments.
The Joe Batt’s Pond linear feature is a 19-km-long trend defined by panned gold from stream sediments, anomalous soil samples, and local clusters of high-grade quartz float containing visible gold. In 2003, while prospecting on a new logging road, two clusters of mineralized quartz vein boulders were found in a 3-km-long section of the trend. Nineteen of 53 grab samples assayed greater than 3 grams.
Samples from the H-Pond cluster assayed up to 159 grams in boulders of up to 1 metre in diameter. Visible gold was found at seven sample sites. Follow-up trenching yielded grabs of up to 22 grams.
The second cluster, 3 km southwest of the H-Pond discovery, returned assays of up to 19.4 grams gold in angular boulders of up to 25 cm. Prospector Rick Crocker is credited with the H-Pond float discoveries.
This past summer, Rubicon popped six holes (1-6) into the H-Pond area, and two holes (7, 8) tested the second site. The extensively altered zones are highlighted by 44 metres averaging 0.75 gram gold per tonne in the first hole, which includes higher-grade sections of 2.51 grams across 5.8 metres at the top of the hole and a 1.1-metre interval of 8.08 grams farther down-hole. “It’s a nice vein system with some high-grade hits,” says McVeigh. “We were successful in banging these holes the way we did.”
High-grade sniffs include: a 0.3-metre section in hole 3 assaying 124 grams, which averages 16.23 gram across 2.4 metres; 1.2 metres grading 12.6 grams in hole 4; and a 0.4-metre interval of 15.3 grams in hole 7. Three other holes, which were designed to test soil anomalies, yielded no significant results.
Rubicon also completed 1,723 metres of drilling on the Golden Bullet prospect, which occurs on the eastern side of the Botwood Basin in an environment similar to H-Pond. The first phase of drilling tested new surface showings and historic, near-surface, high-grade gold mineralization. The drilling encountered gold mineralization of up to 0.67 gram across 33.5 metres, with individual quartz veins as wide as 7 metres.
Crosshair Exploration also optioned the Glenwood and Wings Point projects from Rubicon in early 2003. The Glenwood project comprises 1,477 claims, 25 km west of Gander, whereas Wings Point consists of 118 claims, 40 km north of Gander. Crosshair can earn a 60% stake in Glenwood by spending $2 million on exploration over four years, and a 60% interest in Wings Point by incurring $1.5 million in expenditures.
At Wings Point, mineralized quartz-vein flooded gabbro and sedimentary rocks containing visible gold are intermittently exposed over a strike length of 485 metres in seven excavator-dug trenches on the Titan prospect. Channel sampling results ran as high as 15.25 grams across 3 metres (including a 0.4-metre section of 48.2 grams) at one end of the prospect and 9.41 grams over 4.2 metres at the other end. This past summer, Crosshair tested the strike extent of the prospect by drilling 11 shallow holes directly under the trenches. The results are highlighted by 3.3 metres grading 10.2 grams gold per tonne, 2.3 metres grading 3.65 grams (including a 0.5-metre interval of 10.3 grams), and 2.5 metres grading 4.45 grams.
The 370-sq.-km Glenwood claim package straddles a major regional structure known as the Dog Bay Line. Prospecting and geochemical sampling surveys led to the discovery of several gold showings in 2004, including the Clydesdale prospect, which returned up to 50 grams gold in grab sampling, and the T-Rex prospect. Follow-up trenching and channel sampling at Clydesdale yielded 5 metres of 6.34 grams, including a higher-grade section of 12.2 grams across 2.5 metres.
The strongest mineralization, with local visible gold, is associated with intensely brecciated and quartz-carbonate veining, carrying 2-5% finely disseminated and coarse clots of arsenopyrite and pyrite. The Clydesdale showing is spatially associated with a north-northeast-striking structure that can be traced for several kilometres.
New World project
On the northern shore of Newfoundland, Rubicon controls the entire New World project, centred on a 30-km-long structural corridor along which numerous visible gold showings have been found. Of the 1,017 grab samples collected during reconnaissance prospecting in 2002, more than 25% ran better than 0.5 gram. During 2003, Rubicon carried out an aggressive program of channel sampling on this coastal project, taking roughly 600 samples. High-grade results from sample sites along an 8-km stretch included the following:
— 18.1 grams over 2.3 metres, including 50.2 grams across 1.1 metres at the Big Island prospect;
— 87 grams over 0.8 metre at Big Oz;
— 10.7 grams over 1.4 metres and 13.2 grams across 1.1 metres at Little Island;
— 44.3 grams over half a metre at Location;
— 49 grams across 0.3 metre and 18.8 grams over 0.3 metre at the Gina showing; and
— 5.9 grams over 5.9 metres in the Dunnage-Coaker area.
The gold mineralization is associated with quartz-carbonate veining and alteration developed in porphyry intrusions and in volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The bonanza-grade mineralization occurs in broader zones of elevated gold. In the area of the Big Oz showing, sampling of a 3-to-5-metre-wide section of mineralized sediments returned an average grade of 1.1 grams for 135 samples taken along the 250 metres of intermittent exposure. This includes an average of 2.6 grams in 44 samples from a 35-metre-long section.
Look for the New World project to be drilled in 2005.
this is very interesting, would love to read more of this gold news