TomaGold shares jump 140% on Monster drill hole

VANCOUVER — Montreal-based TomaGold (LOT-V) garnered a lot of market attention following the release of preliminary high-grade assay results on its Monster Lake gold property outside the town of  Chibougamau, Quebec.

TomaGold shares closed the trading session up 140% or 49¢ following the announcement, on a 1.4-million-unit trade volume that dwarfed the company’s daily average of 20,000 shares. TomaGold closed the day at 84¢.

The excitement was over a single hole collared at Zone 52, which lies on a gold-bearing corridor that has been traced over more than four km.

Hole 12-60 cut 5.7 metres grading 238 grams gold per tonne starting from 69 metres depth. The results are part of an 18-hole program designed to test the northern extension of Zone 52. The mineralization is related to dark quartz-sulphide veins within an altered shear zone ranging from three to ten metres in width in basaltic units.

“This is a major discovery in terms of both grade and continuity,” commented president and chief executive officer David Grondin. “The intersection has strong exploration potential, as it is open along strike and at depth.”

TomaGold acquired Monster Lake in a deal with Stellar Pacific Ventures (SPX-V) in May 2011 for US$3.3 million paid through the issuance of 22 million shares at 15¢. The acquisition included three properties in Quebec totalling 143 mineral claims surrounding Chibougamau, and Val D’Or.

Stellar Pacific shares also traded way above typical volume following the announcement, with 4.6 million shares changing hands en route to a 16% price increase and an 11¢ close.

According to historic drill results from the Société québécoise d’exploration minière (SOQUEM), there have been a minimum of ten gold showings with intersections over 4 grams gold, at lengths of up to 5 metres at Monster Lake.

SOQUEM conducted 20,000 metres of drilling on the site between 1984 and 1995, and excavated several trenches along a 4-km-long mineralized corridor.

Monster Lake has three established targets that include: Eratix, Zone 3-4, and Zone 52. Drilling has been conducted on the zones at 50-metre-line spacing, but several intersections remain open along strike and at depth.

Stellar Pacific drilled 46 holes in the area over the past two years, highlights from its program include: 2 metres of 76.53 grams gold starting from 49 metres; 2 metres of 8.26 grams gold from 53 metres; 3 metres of 7.22 grams gold from 96 metres; and 4 metres of 3.19 grams gold from 79 metres.

TomaGold is continuing Stellar Pacific’s definition drilling program, and following up on stripping and channel sampling completed during the last half of 2011.

The company made the transition from the green-energy sector last year — previously having been named Carbon2Green — where it was working on a jatropha project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. TomaGold currently has 5.9 million shares outstanding, and a presstime market cap of US$4.96 million.