VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Junior exploration company Northern Superior Resources will redefine the inferred resource on its 100%-owned Croteau Est property, in Quebec, the company announced on Wednesday.
The TSX-V-listed company said the decision was based on results from the Phase I drill programme completed on the property during the first quarter.
Northern explained that redefining the current inferred gold resource originally reported on January 14, 2016, would require a detailed evaluation of structural controls to determine and reaffirm specific emplacement mechanisms and characteristics of the defined high-grade, gold-bearing shoots (orientation, dip and width) known to occur within the Croteau Bouchard Shear Zone (CBSZ).
“There is far more opportunity to realise additional ounces of gold associated with the CBSZ by focusing on the high-grade gold shoots than by considering the deposit as a whole, which presented a relatively low-grade, openpit model. Focusing on the high-grade, gold-bearing shoots presents an opportunity to consider an underground mining operation, which is more in keeping with most gold mining operations associated with Abitibi-related gold mines, such as the Sage Gold Clavos deposit, the Integra Gold Lamaque gold deposit and the Osisko Mining Windfall Lake deposit,” said company president and CEO Dr Tom Morris.
He added that the re-evaluation would not exclude some consideration for limited openpit development, where appropriate.
Redefining the resource estimate will entail an internal re-evaluation of all related geoscience data, including determining gold grade times thickness intercepts from 19 core drill holes completed within the central part of the CBSZ; determining the structural orientation of quartz veins and intrusive dykes that host high-grade gold intercepts through an optical televiewer survey; determining structural controls and emplacement mechanisms of high-grade gold-bearing shoots determined from a detailed, independent evaluation of all related geoscientific data; and re-evaluation of the structural data, which will also incorporate structural data from the trench mapping and channel sample assay data derived from several trenches across the CBSZ mineralisation.
The company said structural data was excluded from the inferred resource determination, however, Northern “feels that it has great relevance” in modelling the geometry of ore shoots that extend from surface to depths of more than 535 m vertical depth.
The junior has allocated a budget of C$1.2-million to facilitate Phase 2 of the Croteau Est exploration programme for about 8 000 m of core drilling.