Ontex seeking senior partner for Brookbank

Having regained control of the Brookbank gold deposit in northern Ontario last year, Ontex Resources (ASE) can now focus its efforts on finding a senior partner to continue exploration on the claims. Ontex won back 100% ownership of the gold property from Metalore Resources (TSE) in December after a judge rescinded two previous contracts between the two companies which had resulted in Ontex’s interest being diluted down to 10%. Metalore is appealing the decision.

Brookbank has previously attracted the attention of major companies such as Noranda (TSE) in the 1940s and Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting (TSE) in the mid-1980s. More recently, cash- rich Placer Dome (TSE) signed a $7-million option agreement in 1989 with Metalore to earn a 50% interest in the property. Work completed to date has outlined a deposit with preliminary reserves of 1.4 million tons grading 0.26 oz. gold per ton uncut.

But, the potential to expand on known reserves is believed to be high since significant gold-bearing drill intersections have been encountered both east and west of the main deposit.

Interestingly, most of the gold mineralization at Brookbank is structurally controlled and associated with a fault contact between mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Historically, most of the region’s gold production of nearly 4 million oz. did not come from that style of deposit, but from narrow vein-type mineralization.

The newer Brookbank-style of mineralization has yet to be fully explored in the area since exploration was hampered by the lawsuit between Metalore and Ontex which cast a dark cloud over the region during most of the late 1980s.

Now with the negative impact of a legal dispute fading into history, the new style of mineralization may become more fully appreciated at Brookbank when serious exploration resumes.