Cornerstone explores central Nfld

Junior Cornerstone Capital Resources (CTP-V) is gearing up to renew exploration at its Paul’s Pond and Island Pond gold properties in central Newfoundland.

Paul’s Pond overlies 7.5 sq. km of the Ordovician-aged Davidsville Group, which consists of fine-to-coarse-grained greywacke interbedded with siltstone and shale.

Previous exploration by Noranda (NRD-T) outlined 100 metres of arsenopyrite-rich, silicified greywacke varying from 2 to 10 metres in width. Dubbed Goose, the zone was found to average 3.14 grams gold per tonne over 2.5 metres and 7.54 grams over 1 metre in drilling, and 4.06 grams over 1.3 metres and 1.28 grams gold over 5.6 metres in trenching.

Last fall, Cornerstone followed up the major’s work with geophysical surveying, soil sampling and geological mapping. An open-ended chargeability anomaly was traced 200 metres along strike to the southwest, and two showings were discovered about 1 km each to the northeast and northwest.

The northeasterly showing is along strike and displays the same type of mineralization found at Goose. The best result was 1.8 grams over 1 metre of trenching.

The northwesterly showing is different from the other two areas, as it is hosted by silicified and pyritic gabbro. A grab sample displaying visible gold ran 25.4 grams, whereas 1 metre of trenching averaged 2.24 grams.

This year’s program will include drilling, mostly to test the chargeability anomaly. The northwesterly strike extention of the Goose zone will be explored as well.

The Island Pond property is larger than Paul’s Pond, covering 9.5 sq. km of the Silurian-aged Botwood Group. This group of rocks is predominated by fine-to-coarse-grained sandstone, siltstone and shale, with red shale, standstone, and fossiliferous and calcareous beds occurring to a lesser degree.

To define known conductors, Cornerstone has completed a geophysical survey near the property’s northern limit. The northwesterly trending anomalies are thought to represent brittle faults and fracture zones, similar to ones on the adjoining Moosehead property of Altius Minerals (ALS-V), to the north.

At Moosehead, Altius and partner Sudbury Contact Mines (SUD-T) have confirmed several conductors as representative of faulting. Some carried low-sulphidation, epithermal quartz veining and quartz-brecciation carrying up to 414 grams gold over 0.6 metre; others yielded only anomalous values (T.N.M., April 7/02).

In the high-grade structures, gold is finely disseminated in variably calcareous siltstone and sandstone. Mineralization is commonly associated with the sulphosalt minerals boulangerite (lead-antimony sulphide) and bournonite (copper-antimony sulphide).

Starting in late spring, Altius and Sudbury Contact will drill 4,000 metres to test possible strike and downdip projections of the high-grade structures. Meanwhile, crews will attempt to locate the source of mineralized boulders found in several parts of the property.

Cornerstone notes that the conductors outlined in the northern part of the property coincide with mineralized boulders and soils anomalous in gold, silver and antimony. These areas of overlap will be the focus of an upcoming drill program, as reconnaissance prospecting and soil geochemistry follow up other untested soil anomalies.