HIGH GRADE AND HIGH HOPES

Richard Cavalero, chief geologist for East West Minerals, estimates the zone contains about 350,000 tons and could be mined and milled separately from the main lead/zinc operation A Merrill-Crowe plant, constructed by Anaconda, sits behind East West’s new mill It may have some potential for recovering gold and silver from mine tailings

But this gold zone, associated as it is with a major massive sulphide deposit, has even broader significance for the entire Bathurst camp A silver discovery at California Lake, in the centre of the huge felsic volcanic complex which hosts some 30 base metals deposits in the Bathurst area, has exploration geologists in the area thinking about not only volcanogenic base metals deposits but epithermal gold and silver deposits, too

Terry Mersereau, a local consulting geologist and contractor, is among those who believe the entire camp deserves another thorough going-over in order to examine epithermal precious metals targets The search for epithermal gold deposits in younger rocks to the north of the Ordovician felsic volcanic complex has been going on for about two years But relatively little work has been done within the camp itself

“There is a renewed interest in the camp for finding precious metals associated with base metals,” says Steven McCutcheon, regional geologist for the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy Cees Banstael, a geologist for the Geological Survey of Canada, has been mapping the area for some time now His work has revised stratigraphic thinking and has led to a hypothesis that there may have been thrust faulting in the area Such a major structural break would bode well for a hydrothermal depositional theory for gold and silver in the area

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