Vancouver — Encouraging drill results have prompted
The results confirmed mineral continuity and delineated a high-grade core of greater than 1 gram gold-equivalent per tonne.
The 42 holes defined the higher-grade core over a 700-by-400-metre area with thicknesses reaching 370 metres. Highlights include the following:
r Hole 1 — 154.1 metres grading 0.89 gram gold and 0.46% copper.
r Hole 4 — 111.4 metres grading 0.84 gram gold and 0.37% copper.
r Hole 13 — 200.2 metres grading 0.71 gram gold and 0.37% copper.
r Hole 16 — 206 metres grading 0.54 gram gold and 0.29% copper.
r Hole 24 — 71 metres grading 0.89 gram gold and 0.44% copper.
r Hole 36 — 47.6 metres grading 0.65 gram gold and 0.34% copper.
Another 1.3-km to the southwest, diamond drilling in the Nugget zone has cut gold-copper mineralization up to a thickness of 159 metres over 300 metres of strike length.
Mineralization is hosted in the same monzonite-takla volcanic geologic setting as Kemess North and remains open in all directions. The widest intercept came from hole 49, which cut 159.7 metres grading 0.36 gram gold and 0.19% copper. Hole 48 returned the best value: 115.6 metres grading 0.46 gram gold and 0.19% copper.
Other higlights include hole 23, which intersected three zones of mineralization with grades reaching up to 0.55 gram gold and 0.13% copper over 62 metres, and hole 43, which cut three zones, including one that returned 0.46 gram gold and 0.16% copper over 100 metres.
Four holes tested the Kemess East target in hopes of finding the faulted-off northeastern extension of the high-grade porphyry dome at Kemess North. Two of these holes hit barren monzonites, while the other two hit the target but returned only short intervals of 15.5 metres grading 1.17 gram gold and 24 metres grading 0.78 gram gold. Copper values were low, at 0.05% and 0.04%.
The latest results suggest that Kemess North, the Nugget zone and the existing Kemess South mine are all part of one continuous porphyry system.
Meanwhile, the company has discovered a gold/copper-bearing porphyry system on its Brenda claims, 25 km northwest of the Kemess South mine.
“This discovery greatly expands the boundaries of the Kemess camp,” says Northgate President Ken Stowe. “It gives us new confidence in the exploration potential of the underexplored Toodoggone region of British Columbia that surrounds the Kemess South mine.”
The Brenda property is 450 km northwest of Prince George and was the subject of a 4-hole, 1,650-metre program this year.
The drilling targeted untested geophysical and geochemical anomalies at lower elevations, allowing the company to try to intersect mineralization below the Toodoggone volcanic rocks. Gold-copper mineralization has been encountered in all the holes and is associated with potassic and magnetite-silica altered Takla volcanic rocks, adjacent to monzonite sills and hydrothermal breccia zones. Highlights from drilling include the following:
r Hole 1 — 14.2 metres grading 0.43 gram gold and 0.03% copper at a down-hole depth of 106.8 metres down-hole,
r Hole 2 — 25.7 metres grading 0.42 gram gold and 0.03% copper at 296.1 metres down-hole,
r Hole 3 — 25.5 metres grading 0.13 gram gold and 0.05% copper at 230.6 metres down-hole,
r Hole 4 — 9.6 metres grading 0.41 gram gold and 0.24% copper at 352 metres down-hole.
Previous exploration on the property outlined a 900-by-400-metre coincidental gold geochemical and induced-polarization anomaly. Subsequent diamond drilling in this zone intersected pyrite, copper sulphides and gold, confirming the potential for a large gold-copper porphyry system.
Northgate can earn a 60% interest in the 44-sq.-km property by spending $2 million and paying owner
Northgate has also drilled the Praxis property, 22 km southwest of Stewart. The company punched five holes into the Section Ridge area of the claim during 2002 with the best results coming in hole 2, which returned 0.67% lead and 0.39% zinc, plus 0.27 gram gold and 13.8 grams silver per tonne.
Northgate can earn a 51% interest in the 75-sq.-km property by spending $3.3 million over four years.
Northgate is still evaluating the results.
“In 2003, armed with the results of several recently completed airborne surveys of the region, Northgate looks forward to undertaking exploration work on several new targets in addition to continuing work at the Brenda property,” says Stowe.
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