Ever since Lake Shore Gold (LSG-T, LSGGF-O) and West Timmins Mining (WTM-T, WTMNF-O) announced in early July that a wedge hole on their Thunder Creek gold property in Timmins intersected 12.75 grams gold per tonne over 83.4 metres, there has been a “staking rush” in that corner of northeastern Ontario, says James Pettit, president of junior explorer MPH Ventures (MPS-V, MPSFF-O).
“The intersection West Timmins came up with was probably one of the best in Canadian history,” he says. “Everything to the south and west of that has all been staked. It’s a great area.”
It’s a lucky break, then, that MPH Ventures managed, after two months of tough negotiations, to convince a group of Timmins-based contractors that they should sell land, 20 km west of Timmins and 9 km northwest of Lakeshore Gold’s Timmins mine — which is set to begin commercial production this year — to the Vancouver-based junior. (The Thunder Creek property that produced the record intercept lies within 800 metres of the Timmins mine shaft.)
MPH Venture’s new 2.8-sq.-km Godfrey property covers several historic gold occurrences and previous operators exposed a 125- metre-long trench within a highly altered felsic intrusion.
Multiple quartz veins and shear structures contain pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and visible gold with grab sample assay results of up to 386.4 grams gold per tonne. A sampling program in 2008 returned high-grade gold, including 53.9 grams gold and 27.7 grams gold.
“There is lots of quartz veining and it might even be a porphyry setting, which is all good,” Pettit adds. “We’re still digging it up, but the bulk of it is this old trench that was put through there — about 100 metres long — and it’s big. When you come across it in the bush it’s huge, and the values taken off there run up to the 13- ounce range.”
MPH Ventures has a 100% interest in the three contiguous gold properties — collectively known as the Godfrey gold property in the Godfrey and Bristol Townships — about a ten-minute drive from downtown Timmins.
The contractors who sold Godfrey to MPH Ventures have become partners in the company and will be involved in the drill program.
“There was very little cash involved in this transaction,” Pettit explains. “They’re taking a direct interest in the company and I don’t have to go very far to find contractors. These guys between them have five or six rigs. . . So my cost per foot or metre will be significantly lower than anywhere else that I’m drilling.”
Nine kilometres away at its 100% owned Timmins project, Lake Shore started processing development material from an advanced exploration program at the end of the first quarter. The company is eying production rates at the Timmins Mine project to ramp up to commerical rates of 1,500 tonnes per day by the end of next year.
At presstime, MPH traded at 8.5¢ per share. The company has a 52- week trading range of 2.5-15¢ and 41.4 million shares outstanding.
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