Northern Gold explores Kirana’s gold potential (September 29, 2008)

Fortified by a $3.2-million treasury, Toronto-based Northern Gold Mining (NGM-V, NTGMF-o) has launched an ambitious exploration program on its gold properties near Timmins and Kirkland Lake, Ont.

Two drills are currently turning on the Kirana property near Kirkland Lake while a third tests geophysical anomalies at the Matheson property, a four-unit claim group just north of the Hoyle Pond gold mine near Timmins.

“We’re gong to be very aggressive over the next three months,” says Ken Rattee, Northern Gold’s vice-president of exploration, who has been working as both a mine and exploration geologist in the region since beginning his career underground at the Macassa gold mine in 1980.

The Matheson property is intriguing because, although it lies close to Hoyle Pond and just a few kilometres from the main highway, exploration has been limited by inaccessibility and lack of outcrop in the swampy, low-lying area.

But results from the small amount of drilling that has been done suggest that the lithological sequence of rocks at Matheson is almost identical to the sequence that hosts the Hoyle Pond mine complex. Hoyle Pond has produced

more than 2 million oz. of gold and continues to yield ore for owner Goldcorp (G-T, GG-n) as the major producer extends the mine’s ramp to depths greater than 1,100 metres below surface.

“This northern sequence of ultramafic rocks is the folded-over equivalent of Hoyle Pond,” Rattee says. “We have some nice IP targets

and we’re looking for a quartz stockwork with gold in it, similar to Hoyle Pond.”

At the underground mine, high-grade mineralization is found in narrow quartz veins that are generally sub-vertical, but can be flat. Gold is mostly in its native state or associated with pyrite, but can sometimes be associated with arsenopyrite.

Northern will drill around 5,000 metres in 20 holes on Matheson, then move to the Frederickhouse property halfway between Timmins and Matheson on the eastern extension of the Porcupine “Giant Mine” corridor in time for winter freeze up.

The target at Frederickhouse –which covers a lake — is a couple of large MMI (mobile metal ion) anomalies in lake sediments that Northern Gold discovered last year.

The company tried to drill the gold anomalies from the ice last winter, but ran into problems with overburden and had to abandon the program. Four historic drill holes on Frederickhouse Lake intersected gold mineralization grading up to 34 grams gold per tonne over 0.4 metre.

Northern Gold holds one of the largest land positions in the Timmins area, behind St Andrew Goldfields (SAS-T, SASXF-o), owner of the Holt-Holloway gold mine, and Goldcorp.

The junior is investigating similar targets at the Kirana property, 5 km northeast of Kirkland Lake and accessible by paved road. Two drills are following up the discovery of high-grade gold values of up to 67 oz. per ton (2,305 grams per tonne) in grab samples during the summer. The smaller rig is testing a zone of alteration and veining associated

with the discovery down to a depth of 60 metres, while the larger rig tests mineralization at depths of up to 300 metres. At presstime, the company had completed 33 holes.

The Kirana claim group covers 8 km of the gold-bearing Kirana Break on either side of the Kirana mine (optioned to Toronto-based Nirek Resources, which trades on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange), where a shallow historical mineral resource of 50,000 tonnes at

a grade of 16.5 grams gold has been reported.

The Kirana mine was developed in 1916 with a 110-metre shaft, and levels developed at 31 and 76 metres. Narrow bands of altered basalt returned values of 33.2 to 248.8 grams gold.

According to Nirek’s reports, the ore deposit occurs on a steeply dipping contact between quartz porphyry and altered basalt. Near the contact, the basalt is highly altered to a greyish rock high in silica, calcite and other carbonates, and contains bands of blackish material that represent the higher-grade portion of the deposit. The dark colour is created by films of molybdenite but pyrite, quartz and calcite are also abundant, with occasional specks of visible gold.

Northern Gold’s target is gold-rich quartz veining with pyrite and molybdenum associations characteristic of the Kirana mine and other mines in the Kirkland Lake camp, which has produced more than 24 million oz. of gold.

On Northern Gold’s property, high-grade mineralization occurs within a deformation zone up to 50 metres wide. The company is currently stripping a new area about 150 metres east along strike of the discovery area where quartz veining, finely disseminated pyrite and similar alteration are also evident.

Because the mineralized zone occurs on the side of a hill, access to the area has been difficult and channel sampling “irregular,” Rattee says. But mineralization has been consistent along 100 metres of strike length. Assays on hundreds of grab and channel samples are pending.

–The author is a freelance writer specializing in mining issues, and principal of Toronto-based GeoPen Commnications. www.geopen.com