THE GLOBAL SEARCH FOR GOLD SPECIAL — Two Wabigoon bets undergo drilling programs

Two gold prospects in the Dryden area of northwestern Ontario are diverting attention away from the town’s traditional role of pulp-miller.

In Zealand and Hartman twps., 25 km east of Dryden, Teck (TEK-T) is drilling the Thunder Lake West property of Corona Gold (CRNA-C). The property is the home of a zone of gold mineralization in altered volcanic rocks.

Previous drilling, to the tune of 132 drill holes, indicated a possible gold resource of 2.8 million tonnes grading 9.1 grams gold per tonne. Teck is close to completing a 5,400-metre drill program to define the resource further.

At Thunder Lake East, Corona is funding a program of surface exploration and diamond drilling on a broad zone of disseminated sulphides where earlier drilling cut 4.1 metres grading 11.7 grams gold.

An agreement with Corona calls for project operator Teck to acquire a half interest in the property once it has spent $500,000 on exploration.

Meanwhile, Champion Bear Resources (CBA-A) continues to drill its Plomp Farm property in Aubrey Twp., 20 km west of Dryden. A quartz-muscovite schist with abundant sulphides, traceable for about 2.4 km along strike, has three zones of gold mineralization.

The Main zone, traced for 1.6 km by holes on 100-metre spacings, has an average width of 15.6 metres, and some mineralized shoots in the structure are as deep as 820 metres.

Grades in the Main zone are as high as 14.4 grams gold over narrow widths.