Spring drilling extends zone at Monument Bay

Drilling at the Monument Bay property in northeastern Manitoba has extended a known mineralized zone of the Twin Lakes gold deposit.

Bema Gold (BGO-T), which is earning an interest in the property under an option from Wolfden Resources (YWO-V), completed a 12,680-metre drilling campaign between January and early May, advancing 43 drill holes, mainly on the Twin Lakes West zone, discovered late in 2002. Cold weather this winter allowed drilling on the new zone from lake ice.

Holes on the Twin West target defined a mineralized zone 400 metres in strike length and extending 50 to 130 metres vertically at depth. Most of the holes intersected the “C” horizon, one of three known mineralized horizons in the Twin Lakes zone.

Intersections were typically fairly narrow but very high-grade; across widths of 1 metre or more, grades ranged from 6.3 to 21.9 grams gold per tonne. Narrow intersections showed bonanza-style grades up to 127.2 grams per tonne over a core length of 0.3 metres.

Six earlier holes in the same drill program, whose results Wolfden released in early March, encountered similar mineralization in the Twin West zone.

One drill hole tested the C horizon at the Twin Lakes Main Zone, intersecting a 1-metre interval that averaged 17.8 grams gold per tonne. Most of that grade was carried in a 0.3-metre interval that ran 56.1 grams per tonne.

One other hole, on the Seeber River Zone, cut 1.4 metres grading 10.5 grams gold per tonne, most carried in a 0.9-metre interval running 15.3 grams.

Last July, using its own drill results from 2002, and drill results from previous operators Hemlo Gold and Noranda (NRD-T), Bema calculated a resource of 500,000 tonnes grading 18.3 grams gold per tonne on the Twin Lakes B Zone.

Noranda’s inferred resource, calculated in 1991, put the resource in the Twin Lakes A Zone at 2.5 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold per tonne, and that in the B Zone at 500,000 tonnes grading 14.8 grams. Noranda also estimated a resource of 450,000 tonnes grading 10.8 grams gold per tonne in the Seeber High Grade Zone, and a 35-million-tonne resource at 1.1 grams in the Seeber Low Grade Zone.

Bema has earned a 51% interest in the project from Wolfden, and plans to spend a further $3 million to earn a further 19%. Newmont Mining (NEM-N), which inherited the property through its takeover of Battle Mountain Gold, now has a 2% net smelter return, rising to 3% if the property produces more than 1 million oz. gold or the equivalent.