Fuelled by encouraging results from the Naartok and Suluk deposits on the Hope Bay Gold project in Nunavut, partners Hope Bay Gold (HGC-T) and Miramar Mining(MAE-T) have planned a 5,000-metre drilling program to begin in the first week of August.
“This continued drilling will allow us to test the potential for expansions to the Naartok deposit, as well as continuing the search for additional deposits in the Madrid area,” says David Fennell, Hope Bay’s CEO.
About 2,600 metres of drilling will test for extensions to the Naartok deposit, 700 metres will test for higher-grade mineralization on the Perrin Bulge and the remaining 1,700 metres will test new targets identified this summer. The program will bring expenditures at Hope Bay in 2001 to $16.4 million
Seven holes are planned for the Naartok deposit. To date, Naartok has been tested by 62 holes, which have defined a zone of mineralization extending 200-300 metres along strike and plunging steeply 250 metres downdip. The highest gold values cut are immediately adjacent to the Deformation zone. The Naartok zone remains open at depth and to the east and west.
Earlier this summer, hole M181, near the eastern end of Naartok, cut 3.1 metres grading 10.4 grams per gold tonne at 200 metres of vertical depth. Four other holes on the western extension encountered the deformation zone, but failed to return additional mineralization.
Three holes will test the down-plunge extension of the Perrin Bulge area, immediately east of Naartok. Initial drilling suggests that grades may increase with depth.
Earlier drilling on the western edge of the Perrin Bulge cut a 1.4-metre width of gold mineralization in quartz veins and silicified breccia containing 19.8 grams gold per tonne. Another hole drilled parallel to the structure intersected the main mineralized lens of the Naartok deposit, cutting an average grade of 23.2 grams gold over a true width of 3.2 metres.
The remaining holes will be collared on several targets near the Deformation zone in the Madrid area.
The program will also include metallurgical testing for the Doris, Naartok and Suluk deposits in preparation for new resource estimates and scoping studies slated for completion by the end of the year.
Drilling on the Suluk deposit will resume once ice coverage is established in early 2002.
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