TNM Drill Down: Mayfair near Timmins tops gold assays for June 19-23

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our data provider Mining Intelligence. 

Results from up north and Down Under led the week of June 19. Mayfair Gold (TSXV: MFG) says new gold assays may expand the Fenn-Gib gold project in the Abitibi region of Ontario. Oceana Gold (TSX: OCG) is drilling towards a prefeasibility study at its Wharekirauponga project in New Zealand. And in the same country, Siren Gold (ASX: SNG) says drilling at its Sams Creek project bodes well to develop an underground mine.  

Mayfair drill hole FG-23-330 cut 0.5 metre grading 3,782.7 grams gold per tonne from 24 metres for a grade x width of 1,891 in the Footwall zone about 100 metres northwest of the Fenn-Gib gold deposit.  

The Fenn-Gib project, Mayfair’s main asset, is located 80 km east of Timmins. It holds 113.7 million indicated tonnes grading 0.9 gram gold per tonne for 3.83 million ounces, according to a resource update this month. It’s a 16% increase over a report in October and comes after a 140,000-metre expansion and infill drilling program completed 133,000 metres. The mineralization strikes more than 1.5 km east-west on the Pipestone fault.  

Drilling this year has extended the strike of the near-surface Footwall zone to about 500 metres and to more than 500 metres below surface. Mayfair plans to report a first underground Footwall zone resource early next year as well as an update to the Fenn-Gibb resource.  

“The Footwall zone target consists of multiple parallel mineralized zones and is open in all directions,” Mayfair Gold president and CEO Patrick Evans, said in a release on June 21.  

Oceana hole WKP118 at the Wharekirauponga project on New Zealand’s Coromandel peninsula near Auckland cut 11.1 metres grading 60.5 grams gold per tonne from 462 metres down hole for a grade x width of 672.  

The project lies in the ecologically sensitive Coromandel Forest Park and would only be contemplated as an underground operation, Oceana says. Residents of Auckland, the country’s largest city, with a population of 1.4 million, use the park for hiking and recreation.  

Oceana has drilled 2,095 metres this year at Wharekirauponga, targeting the addition of indicated resources in the EG Vein zone, which is a hanging wall splay and three footwall veins. Opportunities for both up- and down-plunge and along-strike extensions of the EG Vein remain, with high-grade intercepts remaining open, the company said in a June 19 release. It plans to produce a prefeasibility study next year.   

Wharekirauponga holds 1.7 million indicated tonnes grading 12.3 grams gold per tonne for 660,000 oz. gold, according to a December resource estimate. It also showed 2.6 million inferred tonnes at 7.8 grams gold for 6400,000 million oz. gold.  

Newmont Mining (TSX: NMC; NYSE: NEM) acquired the site in 2005 and was in a joint venture to explore it during 2009-2013 before Oceana bought the property three years later. Small-scale mining there dates to the 1890s.  

From the top of New Zealand’s North Island we travel to the north of the South Island. Siren hole DDHSC84019 at the Sam’s Creek project cut 183 metres grading 2.46 grams gold per tonne from a depth of 31 metres for a grade x width of 450.  

Siren has drilled 137 holes for 20,016 metres at Sams Creek, which is about 300 km north of Christchurch, the company said in a June 22 release. Drilling has focused on a 1.5-km section that’s about 20% of the strike and is open at depth. Gold mineralization is contained in sulphide veins that dip southeast perpendicular to a porphyry dyke. 

The dyke is more than 7 km long, up to 60 metres thick and extends down dip for at least 1 km, Siren said. Sams Creek holds 9.1 million tonnes grading 2.82 grams gold for 824,000 oz. contained metal, according to an estimate last year following the Australian mining code.