Situated at Courageous Lake, 150 miles northeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T., the Tundra property has been the site of a recent $35-million underground exploration program. The joint venture partners recently announced that “the grades encountered to date will not permit a production decision at this time.”
Only a small portion, comprising about 20% of the entire deposit, was examined during the recent underground program.
Peter Lintern, director of projects for Noranda Minerals, said the grades encountered by the underground program were lower than expected from surface drilling. “It (Tundra) doesn’t look to be an economic deposit at today’s gold price,” he told The Northern Miner. “The grades have been lower than expected.”
Previously considered as one of Noranda’s top projects in Canada, the Tundra Gold venture was thought to have at least a 50/50 chance of becoming a mine.
The current underground work is expected to reach completion next month after a bulk sample has been taken and transported to surface. The partners are considering a 1990 surface exploration program to investigate unexplored targets on the surrounding joint venture lands. The Tundra gold venture covers about 24,500 acres underlain by rocks of the Courageous Lake volcanic belt.
Detailed underground work to the end of September included 4,660 ft of drifting and crosscutting, as well as 65,000 ft of diamond drilling. That program examined about 20% of the known gold- bearing structure.
Total Energold has a 49% interest in the property while Noranda and Hemlo hold 25.5% each. Mineralization consists of at least 17 gold-bearing zones, estimated to contain 32.5 million tons of material grading 0.20 oz gold per ton, using a cutoff of 0.12 oz.
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