Toronto-listed Wesdome Gold Mines is evaluating options to fast-track an exploration ramp from surface to test the potential of the Presqu’île zone, about 2 km from its Kiena mine, in Quebec.
The infrastructure will not only be a platform for exploration activities at Presqu’île, but could also be easily connected to Kiena’s existing underground ramp network, providing a second access for conveyance of material and personnel, freeing time for additional ore hosting via the shaft. This, president and CEO Duncan Middlemiss says, will greatly improve efficiencies at the Kiena mine.
The decision follows recent surface exploration results at Presqu’île, which confirmed several narrow, subparallel zones that are steeply east-plunging located proximal to a sheared mafic-ultramafic contact.
Previous drilling at the Presqu’île zone has defined a near surface inferred mineral resource of 353 000 t grading 7.1 g/t gold totalling 80 600 oz of gold from three lenses - PR-1, PR-2, and PR-2A zones.
The PR-2A zone is interpreted to be open along strike eastward and down dip and represents an excellent target for the exploration drilling at depth.
Wesdome is currently drilling with two drills on barges and one surface drill to explore adjacent mineralisation to the Kiena mine within the Jacola formation. Several of these areas include the Dubuisson, Shawkey, Thompson and recently discovered Bourgo zone, again having the potential to add to feed for the Kiena mill.
Drilling is ongoing and updates will be released within the next several months.
“It is evident that as we continue to explore and collect new geological information, we are able to discover traps for gold mineralisation, thereby demonstrating the prospectivity of the property,” says Middlemiss.