Regional exploration turns up new prospects at Hope Bay

Cashed up after a $30-million financing, Miramar Mining (MAE-T) has found a number of new targets to use the money on after a regional exploration program on its Hope Bay project in Nunavut.

The Hope Bay land package, where three known gold deposits have already been defined, covers an 80-km length of Archean-age greenstone belt. The Doris and Madrid deposits, near the Arctic coast, are at the north end of the belt, and the Boston deposit, about 50 km to the south.

Hope Bay’s most recent regional exploration program on the belt tested two geological targets where the company had recognized potential for gold mineralization unlike the known deposits.

At the Twin Peaks area, just southwest of the Madrid deposit, surface sampling had returned gold values in an area where metamorphosed shales overlie volcanic rocks and syenite plugs. The geology resembles the Kirkland Lake camp in northern Ontario.

Following overburden drilling in the area, four core holes intersected a quartz-stringer system where samples graded up to 1.7 grams gold per tonne over a 2-metre core length.

At the QSP area, on the western fringe of the Hope Bay belt about halfway between the Madrid and Boston deposits, three holes drilled by the previous operator BHP — now BHP Billiton (BHP-N) — had intersected gold in altered felsic volcanic rocks. Five new holes by Miramar intersected silicified and sericitized felsic pyroclastic rocks with between 1% and 10% sulphides. The best intersection graded 7.6 grams gold per tonne over a 3-metre core length.

The company is also doing reverse-circulation overburden drilling in three other areas north and east of QSP. At Gas Cache, on the eastern edge of the belt opposite QSP, drilling showed weakly to moderately altered basalts with trace amounts of gold.

At the Nexus prospect, about 8 km south of the Madrid deposit, overburden drilling confirmed an earlier seismic survey that suggested the shear zone that hosts the Naartok and Suluk showings near Madrid. Drilling at Amarok, about halfway between Nexus and Gas Cache, revealed a buried contact between mafic and intermediate volcanic rocks where there was some sericitization and carbonatization.

Infill drilling at the Doris North zone is now complete. Miramar released results from six drill holes — four on the northern extension of the deposit and two in the central part of Doris North.

The four holes on the northern extension of the Doris North zone all intersected gold mineralization on the Lakeshore and Central veins. The mineralized lengths ranged from 0.5 to 3.3 metres and grades were typical of the known zones.

The highest grade encountered in the northern drilling was 135.7 grams gold per tonne over 0.5 metre, on the Central vein; the same hole intersected a 2-metre interval grading 39.7 grams per tonne on the Lakeshore vein.

The two holes in the central part of the Doris North mineralization both tested the Hinge vein system, returning grades of 11.2 grams gold per tonne over a 6.1-metre core length, and 4.4 grams over a 10.8-metre interval.

Two additional holes were drilled near the proposed portal to condemn the area. One did not intersect any significant mineralization, though the other cut a 0.4-metre section grading 6.8 grams gold per tonne.