Monument Bay drilling turns up more gold

Drilling by Thunder Bay-based Wolfden Resources (WOLF-C) continues to intersect gold mineralization in the known A and B Zone structures at the Monument Bay deposit in northeastern Manitoba.

The program has targeted two known mineralized zones in the east-striking Twin Lakes-Monument Bay shear zone. The mineralization is in sericitized and silicified volcanic rocks sandwiched between two sequences of sediments. The whole shear zone, which has been traced for about 30 km, plays host to other gold occurrences and several zones of carbonate-albite alteration on both sides of the Manitoba-Ontario border.

The seven holes assayed so far have tested a 250-metre strike length of the gold-bearing structures. Three holes — TL00-03, -05 and -07 — were step-back holes that tested the A Zone at vertical depths of 130-175 metres, and the B Zone at around 200 metres; the rest tested shallower mineralization.

Four more drill holes are complete, and three of those have encountered visible gold mineralization. The new holes tested an area still further to the east, indicating a strike length of 370 metres.

The most recent results appear to confirm earlier grades on the A and B zones. Hole TL00-06 intersected 1.7 metres grading 7.2 grams gold per tonne on the A zone and 3.2 metres grading 13.7 grams on the B. Hole TL00-07 cut a 3.6-metre length grading 7.9 grams on the A zone, and farther down cut 2.3 metres grading 12.9 grams. The results are in line with earlier drilling 80 metres to the west, where hole TL00-04 intersected 0.9 metre grading 2 grams on the A Zone and 4.2 metres grading 16.9 grams on the B Zone. In TL00-05, the step-back hole on the same section, the A Zone graded 7.5 grams over a 3.9-metre core length and the B Zone, 16.6 grams over 4.8 metres.

Wolfden is earning outright ownership of the property from Battle Mountain Gold (BMG-N), which retains a back-in right that can be traded for a 2% net smelter return. Noranda (NOR-T), which had drilled the property between 1989 and 1991, calculated a 2.4-million-tonne resource grading 2.7 grams per tonne in the A Zone, 472,000 tonnes grading 15.8 grams in the B Zone, and 590,000 tonnes grading 9.9 grams in the C Zone. To earn its interest, Wolfden must perform $3 million in exploration work over six years.