North Country Gold ramps up exploration at Three Bluffs

Since graduating with a geology degree from the University of Alberta in 1988, John Williamson has founded ten junior resource and mining companies with assets across Canada, Western Australia, South America and Africa. He has helped raise over $100 million in equity or debt financing, ploughed more than $70 million into exploration, and grossed over $95 million in metal sales. 

Williamson has also managed to acquire 2,300 Sq. km in the Committee Bay greenstone belt northeast of Baker Lake, Nunavut – one of the few under-explored greenstone belts left in Canada that is not controlled by a major mining company.

Today, Williamson’s North Country Gold (NCG-V) has five diamond core rigs and one reverse-circulation rig turning in the middle of the greenstone belt on the Walker Lake Trend at its Three Bluffs project, about 288 km north of Agnico-Eagle Mines‘ (AEM-T, AEM-N) Meadowbank gold mine. Meadowbank is 180 km south of the bottom tip of the 300-km-long Committee Bay belt.

The Three Bluffs deposit is at the eastern end of the Walker Lake Trend, a package of gold-bearing, iron formation-bearing supracrustral rocks. So far North Country has drilled in three key areas – Three Bluffs, Antler and Hayes – but has identified as many as two other development centres along the belt.

This year’s drill campaign is designed to test 4 km of stratigraphy extending southwest from the Three Bluffs deposit and encompassing last year’s discoveries of Antler and Hayes.

The company has drilled 22,000 metres to date and this year has a $25-million budget for a drill program of between 30,000 metres and 50,000 metres. The budget includes money to build an airstrip and other infrastructure.

In a prepared statement, Williamson, North Country Gold’s president, chief executive, and director, said the company was ahead of schedule and “well on track for the most aggressive exploration campaign in the project’s history.”

The best drill intercept to date came from hole 07TB048, which returned 19.44 grams gold over 23.7 metres. In the Three Bluffs Zone, hole 10TB082 returned 5.88 grams over 42.1 metres, while hole 10TB092 cut 5.52 grams gold over 39 metres. At Three Bluffs West, drill hole 10TB091 returned 4.28 grams over 26 metres.

Three Bluffs remains open along strike and depth and currently has an indicated resource of 2.7 million tonnes grading 5.85 grams gold per tonne, with inferred resources adding 1.27 million tonnes grading 5.98 grams gold.

North Country Gold’s assets in Nunavut were formerly part of Williamson’s Committee Bay Resources. That company changed its name to Niblack Mineral Developments (NIB-V) in April 2010, and later spun off the Three Bluffs property in Nunavut under North Country Gold.

In addition to these companies, Williamson has served as chairman, president, chief executive, chief financial officer or director of: CBR Gold (CBG-V), Brilliant Mining (BLT-V), Indicator Minerals (IME-V), Kaminak Gold (KAM-V) and Cedar Mountain Exploration (CED-V).

At presstime, North Country Gold was trading at $1.68 per share. Over the last year it has traded in a range between 22¢ (July 8, 2010) and $1.87 (April 7, 2011). The company has 96.2 million shares, fully diluted.