St Joe drills off reserves on Kenora P & M property

Two quiet years of exploration by St. Joe Gold have resulted in another gold deposit for the company. An 18,440-m drill program has been completed on the company’s Shoal Lake property held under option from Kenora Prospectors & Miners. Located in northwestern Ontario near Kenora, the property includes the Cedar Island and Mikado gold prospects.

The St. Joe-operated drill program has outlined drill-indicated reserves of 863,500 tons grading 0.25 oz gold per ton over an average true width of 5.5 ft.

A majority of the drilling has focused on the Cedar Island zone which has been partially drilled off across 3,280 ft of strike. Drilling is to a depth of 820 ft. The partners plan an 26,240-ft in-fill drill program beginning this month. St. Joe can earn a 50% interest in the property by spending $2.45 million on exploration and making cash payments to Kenora totalling $610,000.

“It’s one of our highest priority projects,” John F. Stephenson, vicepresident of St. Joe Canada told The Northern Miner. St. Joe Canada is a wholly-owned affiliate of the U.S.-based parent. Following completion of the next phase of in- fill drilling sometime next March, St. Joe expects to have earned its 50% interest. Thereafter, exploration expenditures will be shared equally between the two partners. At that time, “we expect to have sufficient reserves which would warrant going underground,” Stephenson said.

Gold mineralization is associated with a prominent structural shear striking across the area. The reserves are confined to three zones, the bulk of which are within the Cedar Island main zone, Robin Jowett, senior staff geologist with St. Joe Canada, explained. The deposit, which remains open in three dimensions, has none of the metallurgical constraints which hamper St. Joe’s neighbor just a few miles to the west in Shoal Lake. There, Consolidated Professor Mines is working a higher grading deposit which is associated with arsenopyrite — a mineral which will require roasting for the economical liberation of gold. “At the moment, there is no evidence of arsenopyrite,” Stephenson explained.