Queenston hits gold

More holes in the Kirkland Lake, Ont., project of Queenston Mining (QMI-T) and Franco-Nevada Mining (FN-T) have intersected gold mineralization along structural extensions of known gold deposits at the Anoki and McBean properties. Meanwhile, new drilling at the Princeton property is providing indications that the McBean zone may persist to the east.

At the McBean mine, 26 holes have been drilled to date in two phases.

Outlined thus far is a preliminary resource of 1.2 million tons grading 0.22 oz. gold per ton (with high assays cut to 1 oz.). The gold system is about 3,000 ft. along strike and about 1,000 ft. along dip, measuring about 200 ft.

in width; it is open in all directions.

Combined with the resource already known in the mine’s Dyke zone, the McBean now has an indicated and inferred resource of 2.9 million tons grading 0.18 oz. per ton.

Immediately to the east of the McBean, mineralization similar to the McBean green-carbonate rock has been intersected in the first hole on the Princeton property. The drill hole cut five separate zones of green carbonate rock, showing grades of 0.03 oz. to 0.07 oz. per ton over core lengths of 3 to 29 ft., and including higher-grade intervals of 5.5 ft. grading 0.11 oz. and 3.1 ft. grading 0.24 oz.

It may be that the Princeton mineralization is a separate zone from the McBean, but it is also possible that the McBean zones continue down-plunge on to the Princeton property. The next phase of drilling will test areas farther east of the first Princeton hole, but will concentrate on extending the known mineralization down-dip on the McBean.

At the Anoki property, west of McBean, four holes tested an area 500 ft.

below the known deposit where one earlier hole had returned significant gold values. All four intersected multiple mineralized zones 2 ft. to 52 ft. in length, with grades generally in the 0.03- oz.-to-0.07-oz. range, but most of the zones included intervals of much higher-grade material, including 2.4 ft.

grading 0.35 oz. and 4.6 ft. grading 0.14 oz. per ton.

Mineralization in the Kirkland Lake camp is notoriously spotty in its occurrence, and grades of 0.03 to 0.07 oz. may be misleadingly low. It is a measure of the nuggetty nature of the gold at Anoki that re-assaying of the gold-bearing interval in the earlier hole (this time using a more representative amount of material) has increased the uncut grade from 0.52 oz. to 0.88 oz. per ton.

The companies are about half-way through a planned $2.5-million program to test properties all along the Kirkland Lake-Larder Lake break.