PRECIOUS METALS — OGS discovery sheds light on Stull Lake area

The daily press and the public, who usually yawn through both mining reports and government news releases, pricked up their ears at an announcement that kimberlite indicator minerals had been discovered in glacial drift in the Stull Lake area, which straddles the boundary between Manitoba and Ontario.

The announcement, from the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, was based on the results of a long-term mapping program in the small greenstone belts of far northwestern Ontario. The work, supervised by Ontario Geological Survey geologist Denver Stone, is the first major regional mapping program in the area since it was mapped by John Satterly and V.B. Meen in the late 1930s. The sudden publicity has served to shine some light on an under-explored area that previously was a modest gold producer.

Wolfden Resources (WOLF-C) holds a 96-sq.-km land package on the Ontario side of the border. The company’s interest is in potential gold mineralization (the shores of Stull Lake are dotted with surface gold showings), but it has announced that it will be following up on kimberlite targets as well.

Just across the Manitoba border, Wolfden also holds the Monument Bay property, where Noranda (NOR-T) drilled off a resource between 1989 and 1991. Battle Mountain Gold (BMC-T), which inherited the property after merging with Hemlo Gold Mines, retains a back-in option, which it can exchange for a 2% net smelter return.

Noranda defined resources on three mineralized zones. The A zone has a resource of 2.4 million tonnes grading 2.7 grams gold per tonne; the B Zone, 472,000 tonnes grading 15.8 grams; and the C zone, 590,000 tonnes at 9.9 grams. A fourth structure, the D zone, was drilled, but no resource has been calculated.

Wolfden also optioned, from Boliden (BOL-T), the Little Stull Lake property, 10 km north of Monument Bay. Little Stull has a resource of 448,700 tonnes grading 10.5 grams per tonne. Boliden had earned a 53% interest in the property in an option deal with Absolut Resources (ALR-A). The option deal, which Wolfden assumes from Boliden, permits the optionee to earn a total interest of 70%. Boliden retains a 1% net smelter return royalty.

St. Lucie Exploration (LUCE-C) has picked up the old Sachigo River gold mine, 60 km east of Stull Lake. The Sachigo River mine produced just over 52,000 oz. gold between 1938 and 1942, and reputedly had the highest grade of any gold deposit mined in Canada, at 38.7 grams per tonne (1.13 oz. per ton).

The property, consisting of a 16-claim lease and 54 staked claims, was bought from a individual vendor, Warren Hunt, to whom the claims had reverted after an earlier holder, Krigold Resources, lost its charter. Hunt retains a 2% net smelter return, which St. Lucie can buy out for $250,000.

Since the end of production, in 1942, there has been only limited work in the area. Inco‘s (N-T) exploration subsidiary, Canadian Nickel Company, and Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting both worked in the area in the 1950s and 1960s; in the late 1980s Krigold and Inco Gold staked additional claims and drilled some holes on the property.

St. Lucie plans to test several electromagnetic anomalies, all of which are on easterly striking structures parallel to the productive ore zone. Geochemical surveys from the Krigold-Inco days also indicate possible targets.

AntOro Resources (ORE-M), meanwhile, has secured the Lingman Lake gold property, 70 km southwest of Stull Lake. Lingman, which has been drilled several times since the 1930s, boasts a resource of 1.6 million tonnes grading 8.3 grams gold per tonne in all categories.

AntOro recently closed a $300,000 financing of 1.6 million flow-through shares, 400,000 common shares and 2 million warrants. However, the funds will not go toward work at Lingman; rather, they will be applied to AntOro’s Clairy property in the Lac Frotet belt of northwestern Quebec.