An induced polarization (IP) survey completed at Maple Gold’s 355-sq.-km Douay gold project in Quebec has expanded the 531 Zone target area and identified a new and undrilled target over 600 metres of strike.
In addition, one of two holes drilled to deepen a hole from 2019 intercepted a higher-grade narrow zone of mineralization, returning 3.5 metres of 5.96 g/t gold.
The second of these two holes intersected 5.2 metres of 1.5 g/t gold with additional infill drilling required to test the continuity of the mineralization in this area.
“The deepening of DO-19-262 intersected an additional narrow mineralized zone with higher grades (>3x) than the current average for underground resources at Douay (RPA, 2019) and the IP results we’ve received are very compelling in terms of there being a more extensive sulphide body at the 531 Zone than has currently been drill-tested,” Fred Speidel, VP of exploration, said in a release.
“In addition, the IP survey results indicate that there may be an additional undrilled sulphide body to the WNW of the Main zone. The scale of these targets and general lack of drilling within these areas provide us with significant untested exploration upside.”
The results of the IP survey suggest that the 531 zone remains open both on strike and at depth whereas the new target area appears to be 800 metres west of the Main zone.
Additional drilling completed at the NW, Nika and Porphyry zones has been targeting high-grade, near-surface mineralization
Additional drilling completed at the NW, Nika and Porphyry zones has been targeting high-grade, near-surface mineralization.
Maple plans to continue with drill testing targets but at a reduced rate to conserve capital and maintain financial flexibility. Updated exploration guidance is pending.
Last year, the company released an updated resource for Douay with pit-constrained indicated resources of 8.6 million tonnes grading 1.52 g/t gold for a total of 422,000 oz. and a further 65.8 million tonnes at 0.97 g/t gold totaling 2 million oz. pit-constrained inferred.
The underground resource component is at 5.4 million inferred tonnes grading 1.75 g/t gold for a total of 307,000 oz.
Current resources are contained within several pits spanning the mineralized zones with the underground portion contained within the NW, Douay West, Porphyry and 531 zones.
The Douay project covers 55 km of the Casa Berardi deformation zone within the Abitibi greenstone belt.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining
Journal)