Noble Peak’s drill plans

Noble Peak Resources (ASE) is planning a major follow-up drill program for its Cache gold discovery made this summer in the N.W.T. Taken from the grass-roots stage to the drill discovery stage in little more than three months, the discovery have yielded encouraging surface and drill results.

Located 90 miles southwest of Rankin Inlet in the Keewatin District of the N.W.T., the Cache project is part of the large 62,300-acre Southwind property acquired by Noble Peak during the summer.

Airborne geophysical targets were followed up by ground reconnaissance prospecting and sampling. An assay laboratory in camp provided quick sample turnaround which enabled Noble Peak’s geologists to quickly screen and evaluate large tracts of land.

This program led to the discovery of series of rusty outcrops in a topographic depression, Maureen Jensen, exploration manager with Noble Peak, explained.

Sampling of the mineralized zone returned grades ranging up to 0.29 oz gold and 0.336 oz gold per ton. Trenching also generated encouraging gold values, assaying up to 1.7 oz gold across 13.1 ft and 0.235 oz gold in a 13-ft section. The positive surface results were confirmed by an 11,000-ft drill program which tested the zones along strike for more than 2,000 ft.

“The gold is not just in quartz veinlets, but is also disseminated in strongly altered host rock,” Jensen added. In plan and longitudinal section, the drilling has outlined three stacked zones or shoots displaying a plunge to the southeast.

Some of the better drill results include 0.259 oz gold across 22 ft and 0.56 oz gold in an 8-ft section. Other good holes assayed 0.299 oz gold in a 4.7-ft section and 0.31 oz gold across 9 ft. These results come from three subparallel zones within a felsic to mafic package of rocks flanking a quartz feldspar porphyry intrusive. Considerable drilling is still required to demonstrate continuity between drill sections.

“This summer we’ll drill it in detail,” Norman Ursel, Noble Peak’s president said. “This is our major target.” Jensen also notes that the mineralized zones are part of a regional trend striking for several miles. Detailed prospecting of this area is also planned as part of this year’s exploration effort. Funding for the 1988 program is in place, Ursel says,

committed by a national flow through fund.