THE GLOBAL SEARCH FOR GOLD SPECIAL — Gold keeps Ontario’s Porcupine district on the map

When the Porcupine gold camp, near Timmins, Ont., has to compete with the glamor of the Andes and the mystery of Southeast Asia, it pulls out its secret weapon: gold. Exploration somehow keeps going when there’s gold to be found.

The events of the past year and a half have proved there is life in the old camp yet, from massive redesigns at established mines such as the Dome to grassroots exploration work.

In the area west of Timmins, Band-Ore Resources (BNDR-C) has attracted considerable interest since it drilled a geological target in Thorneloe Twp. last winter and intersected high-grade gold mineralization. The company continues to drill stepout holes and has mineralized drill intersections along a strike length of 250 metres.

About 3 km east of Band-Ore’s discovery, Black Pearl Minerals (BLKP-C) has intersected what it describes as a “significant intersection” with visible gold. Assays on the core have yet to be reported.

Black Pearl’s drill target was an induced-polarization anomaly lying along strike from the Band-Ore mineralization. Band-Ore’s gold is in a zone of disseminated sulphides — including fine-grained arsenopyrite — which could be expected to be strongly polarizable.

Battle Mountain Canada (BMC-T) is drilling a property in Denton Twp., bordering Band-Ore to the west, in which it holds a 70% interest. Gowest Amalgamated Resources (GWA-A), with 25.5%, and Jonpol Explorations (JON-T), with 4.5%, are the minority partners. The property features several induced-polarization targets along strike from Band-Ore.

Pentland Firth Ventures (PFO-T), which has established itself as the principal land-holder in Hoyle and Matheson twps., northeast of Timmins, continues to work on targets around the active Hoyle Pond mine, owned by affiliate Kinross Gold (K-T). Pentland has deliberately concentrated on this area, where the overburden is thick and mineral rights were in private hands — both factors that encouraged the early prospectors to look elsewhere.

Recent drilling at Pentland’s Marlhill project has concentrated on testing known vein structures at depths below the existing mine workings. One drill hole, PM-75, encountered an 8.4-metre (27.6-ft.) intersection grading 25.4 grams gold per tonne (0.74 oz. per ton) on the main M-1 structure, plus two deeper mineralized zones, one with 7.9 grams over 6.5 metres (0.23 oz. over 21.3 ft.) and another with 5.5 grams over 2 metres (0.16 oz. over 6.6 ft.).

Pentland is planning to extend the existing Marlhill ramp to allow access around the 255-metre level for drifting and raising on the M-1 vein. The mine portal was reopened at the beginning of August for water quality sampling.

Southeast of Marlhill, Black Hawk Mining (BHK-T) and Pentland Firth both have drill-indicated resources essentially along strike from Hoyle Pond and the former producers at Owl Creek and Bell Creek.

West of Hoyle Twp., Moneta Porcupine Mines (ME-T) holds a large land position in Murphy Twp., partly under joint venture with Placer Dome (PDG-T). The companies agree with Pentland and Kinross that the camp’s “New Trends” north of the main Destor-Porcupine fault may offer the best grassroots opportunity in the camp.

In the Night Hawk Lake area, 30 km east of the city, Royal Oak Mines (RYO-T) is putting its Nighthawk Lake mine into production and Echo Bay Mines (ECO-T) is advancing the Aquarius project to a final feasibility study.

Closer to Timmins, Vedron Gold now has $1.4 million in place for a 7,500-metre drill program on its Fuller project, part of a land package that includes the Buffalo Ankerite mine, which produced just under 1 million oz. between 1926 and 1953.

Buffalo Ankerite

Belmoral Mines put a decline down on the Fuller zone, and undertook detailed exploration from underground during the period 1986 to 1989. Belmoral’s insolvency left the project on hold, with a reserve of 380,000 tonnes grading 6.2 grams gold (420,000 tons grading 0.18 oz.) above the base of the workings at a depth of 195 metres.

Workings from the Buffalo-Ankerite shaft reached the down-plunge extension of the Fuller zone in the early 1950s. Drill intersections along the plunging zone have graded up to 14.7 grams gold over 3.7 metres, and bulk tests and limited production from the underground workings returned grades of about 6.9 grams gold (0.2 oz.). As happens so often in the Porcupine gold camp, bulk grades were higher than drill holes had promised.

Vedron plans to test areas between the decline and Buffalo Ankerite’s old stopes, as well as other targets in the fold nose that contains the Fuller mineralization. The company also plans to drill targets in the northern part of its land package.

Next door, Placer Dome has work under way to return the old Paymaster mine to production. The big gold producer’s Timmins mill, among the lowest-cost mills in Canada, is already taking ore from the Dome mine’s new Super Pit at just over 2 grams per tonne, giving it plenty of flexibility in the grade of ore it can accept.