Kidd Creek operator Syngold flies high on Owl Creek West results

There’s nothing quite like great drill results to stir up excitement and Syngold Exploration, with operator Kidd Creek Mines, have done just that by intersecting a wide zone of high gold values on their Owl Creek West property in the heart of the famed Timmins mining camp.

Diamond drill hole H13-34 has returned an average assay of 0.18 oz gold per ton over 173.9 ft. The zone includes a 78.7-ft interval averaging 0.32 oz. An adjacent hole, located 150 ft along strike and 150 ft deeper, has intersected 0.24 oz over 36.1 ft.

“It’s the best hole of the program,” Barry D. Simmons, Syngold president, tells The Northern Miner, adding that it comes about three-quarters of the way through the 45,000-ft drilling program which started in September.

And the hole is proving to be a real shot-in-the-arm for the Montreal-listed Syngold, reactivated this past year under Chairman James Gill, who is also president of Aur Resources, and Mr Simmons, the former regional exploration manager for Corporation Falconbridge Copper at its Thunder Bay office, where he was involved in the Winston Lake discovery.

When trading in Syngold shares was halted on Friday, Dec 5, for the disclosure of the drill results the last trade was at $1.30. The share price quickly shot up to $2.50 when trading resumed the following Monday. Around press-time, trading was strong at $2.50 bid — $2.65 ask. The Owl Creek West property consists of two contiguous claims covering about 80 acres and adjoins Kidd’s Owl Creek project which has been mined by open pit methods since 1982. Reserves at that latter project as of Oct 31, 1985 stood at 690,000 tonnes of 5.2 g gold per tonne.

Syngold entered into its agreement with Kidd Creek in February, 1986. Under the terms, Syngold can earn a 25% interest in the property by spending $1 million before Feb 28, 1987. The company can earn an additional 10% interest by providing Kidd Creek with funds for a further $400,000 of exploration on the property before March 1, 1988.

In 1984, prior to the Syngold agreement, Kidd Creek had completed a drilling program totalling 18,299 ft on 16 widely spaced holes on the property. Assays returned gold values between 0.19 oz and 0.25 oz over widths ranging from 7.4 ft to 35.4 ft

The current program which started this September under the Syngold agreement focused on fill-in and step-out drilling. Early assays from this program included 0.19 oz gold per ton over 8.2 ft, 0.22 oz over 7.5 ft and 0.18 oz over 6.6 ft.

Regarding the recent Hole 13-34, John Heslop, director of exploration for Falconbridge Ltd., which acquired Kidd Creek about one year ago, says it is still too early to talk specifics such as depth and location. But he does say that it appears the new intersection “is not open pitable.”

The new zone is open along strike and both downdip and updip. Two drills are testing the potential for extensions in these directions. A third drill has just been added to accelerate the exploration of this zone. There’s also a fourth machine investigating targets elsewhere on the property.

“There’s lots of life left in the Timmins mining camp,” says Mr Simmons, adding “we couldn’t be more pleased with the results and the work that operator, Kidd Creek, is doing.”

Kidd originally optioned the Owl Creek West back in 1978 from Canico, a subsidiary of Inco Ltd., which explored the property from 1966 to 1973. Canico drilled five diamond drill holes totalling 3,470 ft but no gold mineralization of significance was found.

Canico is entitled to a 2% net smelter return royalty from any production from the property after a total of 350,000 oz of gold has been produced from the property and the adjacent Owl Creek property owned by Kidd. Kidd has agreed to pay the royalty due Canico on the first 100,000 oz of gold produced from the Owl Creek West property. Any further royalties from the property will be paid by Syngold and Kidd on a pro rata basis.