Northern Star drills Midway

Vancouver — The first hole of an ongoing 25,000-ft. drill program has cut mineralization 1,200 ft. below surface at the Midway property, west of Val d’Or, Que.

Hole 10 is the deepest drill intercept to date on the property, reports Northern Star Mining (NSM-V). The hole yielded (in three separate zones) 6.5 ft. grading 0.23 oz gold per tonne, 11.4 ft. of 0.19 oz gold, and 16.2 ft. of 0.22 oz gold.

Over the past year, Northern Star has been drill testing the property, which hosts the number 1 shaft of the past-producing Malartic Gold Fields mine. In production from 1939 to 1962, the operation produced nearly 2 million oz. gold; mining extended down to the 2,400-ft. level. Historical geological reports give the Midway project a probable resource of 420,504 tons grading 0.2 oz. gold per ton. The possible resource figure is 255,268 tons grading 0.2 oz gold. Some 451,943 tons grading 0.16 oz. gold are classified as geological resources adjacent to the old mine workings.

Northern Star has so far focused on the southern portion of the property, which straddles the prolific Cadillac structural break. Gold mineralization occurs in en echelon veins in gabbro bodies associated with sulphides — mainly pyrite. Lower-grade gold mineralization is also found in quartz monzonite intrusive.

Earlier this year, Northern Star sunk nine widely spaced drill holes on the property, the objective being to increase resources in the upper 700 ft.

Highlights include:

— Hole 2 — 21.3 ft. grading 0.33 oz. gold;

— Hole 6 — 51.6 ft. grading 0.3 oz. gold;

— Hole 7 — 46.2 ft. grading 0.3 oz. gold;

— Hole 8 — 22.1 ft. grading 0.58 oz. gold.