Report from Calgary Drilling is in high gear

Flying over Courageous Lake in the N.W.T. one sees six diamond drill rigs in operation and an additional four rigs being set up. Leading this exploration effort is the team of Noranda Inc. and Getty Resources which has come up with a major gold discovery on the Tundra property located 150 miles northeast of Yellowknife.

Other companies active in the camp are all from the western provinces with Calgary-based companies well represented. These include Courageous Exploration, Gunnar Gold and soon-to-be listed Mill City Gold Corp. Claude Resources and Colray Resources are both Saskatoon-based with the remainder of the juniors coming from Vancouver.

The magnitude of the Noranda/ Getty effort is impressive as one scans the horizon and sees three Boyles 56-A drill rigs and another Longyear 38, all with high towers. Rumors circulating in Yellowknife suggest that one 56-A is scheduled to drill a deep hole to a depth of 4,000 ft. A fifth deep-drilling 56-A is scheduled for arrival in July.

The results of drill holes numbered to 49 indicate that a multiple- zoned gold deposit has been discovered striking for 2,500 ft and extending to more than 3,500 ft at depth. Four individual zones with northerly strikes and steep dips are hosted within rhyolitic flows and tuffs. Widths range up to 60 ft and grades are from 0.2-0.3 oz gold per ton. The implications to build tons here are impressive.

Noranda, which has considerable experience with large tonnage gold deposits acquired at Hemlo, appears to have a goliath of a gold deposit on its hands.

Others active in the Courageous Lake camp include Aber Resources which completed a drill program on the Jack property optioned from Savanna Resources. One hole cut 33 ft grading 0.27 oz old per ton. Bow Valley Resources and Hemisphere Development are drilling Savanna’s claims east of the Tundra property. Giant Yelloknife Mines is also active on their AT property north of the Tundra ground. With the Salmita mine closed down, Giant is trying to replace the highly profitable Salmita operation with another discovery. The Salmita, which is located just south of the Tundra property, mined an average grade of 0.9 oz gold per ton.

Placer Development is also expected to start drilling shortly on claims held by Colray. Also, Bow Valley will drill ground optioned from Roxwell Resources. The Gunnar-Mill City group will carry out a surface exploration program in preparation for winter drilling.

As investors sit on the sidelines awaiting further drill results from Getty and Noranda, observers close to the scene are trying to quantify what Courageous Lake represents. Whereas Hemlo is a stratabound deposit displaying uniform gold mineralization and good continuity, the deposits at Courageous Lake are both stratigraphically and structurally controlled. Also, gold occupies shoots of varying grade which average 0.2 oz gold per ton. Lacking a Trans-Canada Highway adjacent to the property, Courageous Lake will require a lot of tons at these grades.

As evidenced by the level of activity here, the possibility of success at this stage appears positive.