Trade Winds taps bonanza grades at Detour Lake

Vancouver — Drilling by Trade Winds Ventures (TWD-V, TWDIF-O) has hit further high-grade gold mineralization at its Detour Lake Block A project, located about 160 km northwest of Timmins, Ont.

Mineralized intercepts were encountered in the M-zone structural corridor with visible gold observed in all but one hole in the set of results.

Hole 65, oriented south at minus 50, had four intervals of visible gold mineralization, most notably a 5-metre interval (from 35 metres downhole) grading 41.3 grams gold per tonne, including a 0.6-metre section of 367 grams gold. Mineralization was in sulphidized quartz veins within the pillow basalts. Deeper intervals in the hole included 12 metres (from 68 metres below surface) grading 3.6 grams gold in a talc-chloritized alteration zone, and a 2.8-metre section (from 266 metres depth) averaging 9.9 grams gold. True width is estimated to be about 60-70% of drilled widths.

Other holes from section 16180E encountered both narrow, high-grade gold and wider zones of lower grade mineralization.

Trade Winds is focused on delineating higher-grade gold along the M-zone structural corridor, and as the potential mineralization extends toward surface. The company has two rigs spinning at Detour Lake, one testing M-zone and the other on the western extension of the North Walter Lake (NWL) zone, discovered in late 2004. The initial hole (87) at NWL cut four zones of gold mineralization including a 0.75-metre high-grade section of 46 grams gold within a wider, 15.5-metre intercept grading 3.7 grams gold.

The project is situated on the northwestern margin of the Abitibi greenstone belt. Gold mineralization is generally hosted in a mafic volcanic complex, near the contact of iron and magnesium-rich basalts. The contact is marked by a felsic rock dubbed the “chert marker unit.” Gold is usually fine-grained and associated with quartz veins, boudins and with adjacent silicic, potassic and carbonate alteration haloes, along with pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite.

Trade Winds is earning a 50% interest in Block A from joint-venture partner Pelangio Mines (PLG-V, PLGOF-O) in return for staged cash payments and share issuances totalling $250,000 and 500,000 shares, plus incurring exploration expenditures of $7.5 million.

Detour Lake Block A, an almost 13-sq.-km land package, is situated on the western boundary of Pelangio’s Detour mine project, formerly operated by Placer Dome (PDG-T, PDG-N), and within its 230-sq.-km Detour Lake land holdings. Placer’s Detour mine produced over 1.7 million oz. gold (at an average grade of 4.2 grams gold) from 1983 through 1999, initially as an open-pit operation then shifting underground. A detailed near-surface drill program, conducted by Placer in 1997, developed a gold resource on Block A with open-pit potential.

Trade Winds is also optioning the Detour West project, located just west of and adjacent to its Block A, from GoWest Amalgamated Resources (GWA-V, GWSAF-O).

With its 34.6 million shares outstanding, Trade Winds posts a $21 million market capitalization considering its recent 60-per-share trading level.