ATLANTIC REPORT Noranda hits significant values

Noranda Exploration continues to be active in the Atlantic provinces. On its Tally Pond-Duck Pond project in central Newfoundland the company has intersected significant precious and base metal values in three diamond drill holes.

Hole No DP-85-86 returned gold grading 0.7 g per ton, zinc grading 5.51% and copper grading 2.56%, all over 11.95 m; hole No DP-95-87 had intersections of 0.64 g gold, 10.23% zinc and 2.1% copper over a length of 20.25 m; and 19.75 m of core from hole No DP-97-87 carried 1.13 g gold, 12.15% zinc and 3.3% copper.

The deposit has been tested over a strike length of 400 m and a width of 200 m. The ore horizon remains open along strike and down plunge. The project is a joint venture with Selco Division-BP Resources Canada, which has a 40% participating interest in the property, located 140 km southwest of Gander.

In north-central New Brunswick, Noranda has reached an agreement with Vancouver-based Lucero Resources Corp. concerning its McCormack-Ramsay and Jonpol gold properties in the Upsalquitch River area near Bathurst, N.B. The 12,325-ha block lies along the trend of the Rocky Brook-Millstream Break, a zone of east-northeast/ west-southwest trending faults and associated carbonate and quartz- carbonate-mariposite alteration immediately north of the Bathurst volcanogenic massive sulphide district.

Lucero can earn a 50% interest in the McCormack-Ramsay property by spending $200,000 this year and $600,000 in 1988; it can earn 50% of Noranda’s 60% interest in the Jonpol property by spending $100,000 on the property by the end of this year, $300,000 next year and $600,000 in 1989.

Acadia Mineral Ventures of Toronto is also working along the Rocky Brook-Millstream Break, where it will spend $1 million exploring for gold and silver. The company has opened a field office in West Bathurst as headquarters for Mert Stewart (pda’s Prospector of the Year) and the large Acadia field team which is prospecting in northern New Brunswick.

Jascan Resources of Toronto and its joint venture partner Novamin Resources have announced assay results from recent drilling on the Dufferin Mine gold property in the Salmon River gold district, Halifax Cty., N.S.

Some of the more significant numbers, which are weighted averages over a minimum 5-ft interval, were 0.963 oz per ton over 5.6 ft in hole J-12; 0.424 oz over 5.9 ft in hole J-10; 0.373 oz over 10.8 ft in hole J-18; and 0.317 oz over 5.35 ft in hole J-4. Nineteen holes totalling 11,140 ft were drilled along the gold-bearing structure over a strike length of 4,900 ft.

The Salmon River gold district, located seven miles northeast of Sheet Harbour, produced 41,632 oz gold from 118,040 tons of ore crushed during a 61-year period of intermittent mining commencing in 1881. The last mining was done by Cons. Mining and Smelting, which sank a shaft to a depth of 527 ft in 1937. Levels were established at 200, 300, 400 and 500 ft.

The Dufferin mine is unique to gold deposits of the Meguma Group because its host rocks are not the typical sequence of metawackes and slates. Dominant rock types in the mine dumps are bedded to laminated iron-carbonate- rich sediments and pale green sericitic slates, both of which contain appreciable amounts of auriferous arsenopyrite.

Jascan is also drilling in the U.S., at its Royal Vindicator gold property in Georgia and on the Windy Gulch portion of the Dawson project in Colorado.

Gordex Minerals of Saint John, N.B., has acquired the Molega gold district near Bridgewater, N.S., Derry Michener Booth and Wahl of Toronto will conduct an exploration program on the property this summer for Gordex.

Gold production from the Molega district amounted to 33,735 tons grading 1.03 oz per ton milled. Decades ago, renowned geologist E. R. Faribault of the Geological Survey of Canada considered Molega to be one of the best locations in the province to test his “deep mine theory.”

Gordex’s open pit gold mine and vat leaching operation near Saint John are scheduled to start up soon and will be operating on a year- round basis.

Westfield Minerals of Toronto and Vancouver is continuing evaluation of its 104-sq-mi Little River gold prospect in south-central Newfoundland’s Baie d’Espoir area. The gold mineralization is associated with stibnite and arsenopyrite in a stockwork of quartz- carbonate veins within a felsic tuff.

The company will spend $750,000, all flow-through funds, trenching and drilling the property this year. Westfield has a 50% interest in the Little River project with joint venture partners The Coniagas Mines and Anglo Dominion Gold Exploration, each of which has a 25% interest.

Paul L. Dean has been appointed director of mineral lands and mines for the province of Newfoundland. Mr Dean had been senior geologist in the mineral deposits section of the mineral development division and had previously worked for a number of mineral exploration companies and as a research geologist at Memorial University.

The mineral lands and mines division is responsible for administering legislation in mineral land tenure and mining operations, including claims recording and quarry materials management, technical and economic monitoring of the mining industry, and for conducting programs to encourage mineral development.

Michael Smith of Bathurst, an independent prospector and geophysical contractor, was named New Brunswick Prospector of the Year at a banquet held in conjunction with the recent New Brunswick Prospectors and Developers Association field trip to gold and tin discoveries and gold-bearing alteration zones in the Saint George Batholith area of southern New Brunswick. An award for assistance to prospecting was given to Douglas Bailey, recently retired New Brunswick provincial mining recorder.