TNM Drill Down: Wesdome’s Eagle River tops gold assays as it expands Ontario mine

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the best gold assays of the past week, Feb. 16-23. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width as identified by data company Mining Intelligence.

Projects in the Americas led the week’s results. Wesdome Gold Mines (TSX: WDO) expanded the Falcon 311 zone at its Eagle River mine in Ontario; Osisko Development (TSXV: ODV; NYSE: ODV) is preparing to release a new resource estimate for the Trixie project in Utah and NGex Minerals (TSXV: NGEX) reports long mineralized intervals at Lunahuasi in Argentina.

TNM Drill Down: Top gold assay results from Feb 16-23, 2024. Credit: Northern Miner

Wesdome cut 2.34 metres grading 269.6 grams gold per tonne from 183.7 metres down hole for a grade x width of 630.8 at Eagle River. The mine, near Wawa northeast of Lake Superior, produced 87,799 oz. gold last year, 71% of the company’s total output. Wesdome also has the Kiena mine in Quebec which produced 35,536 oz. last year.

In 2023, an updated 3D geologic model found the Falcon 311 zone gold mineralization occurs at the contact between the mine shears and their intersection with volcanic sediment, the company said Feb. 20.

Surface and underground exploration drilling in July, October and December found high-grade mineralization east and west of the mine’s diorite. It extended the Falcon 311 zone at least 200 metres along plunge and nearly 100 metres along strike with potential to expand to surface almost 900 metres along plunge, similar to the neighbouring Falcon Seven zone, the company said.

“By leveraging our experience and understanding of the Falcon Seven zone, the team was able to quickly identify and define this new discovery at a higher hit rate per hole,” president and CEO Anthea Bath said in a release.

“Falcon 311 is now the second zone identified in the volcanic rocks west of the mine diorite, confirming the prospectivity in an area that has seen limited drilling historically.”

Osiko’s Trixie

Osisko Development drill hole TRXU-DD-23-072A cut 8.9 metres grading 66 grams gold from 23.5 metres down hole for a grade x width of 593.7 at the Trixie project. It’s part of the East Tintic mining district in central Utah. The company plans to release an updated resource estimate next month, it said Feb. 22.

The company has received all assays from 6,028 metres of underground diamond drilling in 73 holes on gold-silver targets last year at Trixie. Assays are pending for one more hole, TRXU-DD-23-073, drilled to a depth of 759.6 metres on a copper-gold porphyry target below Trixie, the company said.

“The T2 and T4 structures at Trixie show multi-ounce gold grades associated with high sulphidation epithermal mineralization, structurally controlled and hosted within quartzites,” the company said. “Mineralization reports consistent multi-ounce gold grades along the entire strike length.”

NGex’s Lunahuasi

NGex, part of the Lundin Group of mining companies, says drill hole DPDH014 cut 184.2 metres grading 2.2 grams gold from 166 metres depth for a grade x width of 396 in Argentina. The Lunahuasi project is on the border with Chile, about 1,300 km northwest of Buenos Aires.

Full assay results reported for 10 holes at Lunahuasi are beginning to outline a significant copper, gold and silver deposit, the company said Feb. 21. Mineralization has been intersected over 750 metres east-west from DPDH014 to DPDH010; 180 metres north-south from DPDH008 to DPDH002; and 890 metres vertically from DPDH005 to DPDH005. The deposit remains open in all directions, it said.

“These new holes have delivered some of the longest, highest-grade, combined copper, gold and silver intersections seen globally for a long time,” president and CEO Wojtek Wodzicki said in the release. “We are starting to see longer intervals of stockwork and disseminated mineralization towards the western part of the deposit.”