Fortune’s samples give gold values

Recent work by Fortune Minerals (CDN) on its Robin claims in the Russell Lake area of the Northwest Territories has returned encouraging results.

A batch of 10 grab samples taken along the southern extension of the Isthmus zone returned grades of up to 33.2 grams gold per tonne (0.96 oz. per ton) and averaged 6.6 grams gold. Further south, where the zone disappears under a lake, Fortune collected chip samples with a length-weighted average grade of 7.5 grams across 2.6 metres.

Fortune has been searching for Lupin-type, iron formation-hosted gold mineralization on the 6,766-acre Russell Lake property since the company was incorporated in 1989. Asarco (NYSE), which dropped its option on the claims about a year ago, helped to identify several favorable zones. The latest results have extended the Isthmus zone by 100 metres to 300 metres. It remains open underneath the lake to the south, where a strike projection shows several geophysical anomalies.

“The Lupin-ore would look very much like this except this zone is hosted in fragmental (volcanic) rock, not sediments,” said Robin Goad, vice-president of exploration for Fortune.

He said Fortune, subject to financing, will drill the Isthmus zone. Across the lake from the gold mineralization, Fortune also uncovered a 100-metre-wide polymetallic zone grading up to 1.4 grams gold, 3,311 parts per million (ppm) zinc and 1,946 ppm copper in chip samples. The “East Massive Sulphide” zone occurs at the transition from coarse, intermediate fragmental rocks to greywacke sediments.