Brigus Gold (BRD-T, BRD-X) looks to have a bigger gold property on its hands than it anticipated.
The company released the latest batch of results from an ongoing drill program at Grey Fox that point to a more robust open pit in the future, as well as underground prospectiveness.
Highlights from the latest batch of assays from 14 holes included 21 metres grading 8.7 grams and 5 metres grading 11.88 grams per tonne from two separate holes in the 147 zone that are above the 200-metre level. All but one of the 14 holes returned significant results.
Most of Brigus’ current resource lies within a potential open pit, but the new results show some stellar grades below the 200-metre level, which indicates potential for underground development.
The best of these deeper intercepts came out of hole 639, which returned 11 metres grading 5.35 grams from 434 metres downhole, and hole 574, which returned 25 metres grading 6.17 grams gold from 265 metres.
“The open-pit opportunity is the current priority, but longer term we would expect an underground operation would also be developed at Grey Fox,” Haywood Securities analyst Kerry Smith writes in a research note.
The other logical outflow from finding high-grade results outside of its current resource estimate is that Grey Fox would yield a more robust resource estimate than the one reported last September.
The 147 zone has measured-and-indicated resources of 543,000 tonnes grading 2.5 grams gold for 43,800 oz. gold, and inferred resources of 4.9 million tonnes grading 2.2 grams gold for 351,900 oz. gold.
The company plans to release an updated resource estimate on the property next quarter, followed by a feasibility study in third quarter of this year.
It has four rigs turning on the 147 zone and one rig on a second deposit at the property: the Contact zone.
Contact has measured-and-indicated resources of 323,800 tonnes grading 7 grams gold for 72,900 oz. gold and inferred resources of 565,700 tonnes grading 5.9 grams gold for 107,500 oz. gold.
Contact remains open along strike, north and downdip, and Smith is bullish on the chances of the zone adding to future resources.
“We believe there is excellent potential to double the size of the Grey Fox resource,” he writes in his report.
Smith says that Grey Fox could provide 2,500 tonnes per day of ore to an expanded mill at Black Fox, with the mine contributing 1,000 tonnes per day. Grey Fox is located 4 km southeast of the company’s operating Black Fox gold mine in the Timmins mining camp.
Beyond 147 and Contact, the Grey Fox property also holds the recently discovered Grey Fox South zone. The zone sits 400 metres east and runs sub-parallel to the 147 zone, returning highlight intercepts of 112 metres grading 1.89 grams gold and 25 metres grading 6.3 grams gold last September.
In Toronto on March 19 — the day after the results were released — the company’s shares were up 7%, or 5¢ to 80¢, on nearly 800,000 shares traded.
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