Equinox Gold probes the potential of Red Lake mining camp

Equinox Gold, builder of the Greenstone gold mine, looks to have another promising project in the development queue. This time it’s in Red Lake.

The Vancouver gold producer published a new mineral estimate of almost 900,000 ounces for its Hasaga property. It was among the package of properties, along with Greenstone, that Equinox picked up in 2021 when acquiring Premier Gold Mines.

Located on the west side of the community of Red Lake, Hasaga is situated in a past and active mining corridor in the Red Lake camp.

Hasaga hosts indicated mineral resource of 408,000 ounces grading 8.64 grams per tonne within 1.47 million tonnes. The inferred side shows 484,000 ounces of gold, grading 7.31 grams per tonne inside of 2.050 million tonnes.

The difference between indicated and inferred resources is the degree of confidence in the amount of minerals in the ground with measured being the highest and inferred being the lowest.

Hasaga was historically known in the Red Lake gold camp for its high gold grades and prolific gold production.

The property features three former Red Lake  mines — Hasaga, Buffalo, Red Lake Gold Shore — that collectively produced more than 240,000 ounces of gold. The Hasaga mine led the way back in the day in producing 218,213 ounces at an average grade of 4.94 grams per tonne between 1938 and 1952.

In a news release, Scott Heffernan, Equinox’s vice-president of exploration, said this new estimate focuses on the high-grade nature of the property instead of their previous bulk-tonne approach. Signs indicate there’s room to grow the resource.

"As expected, the updated mineral resource estimate contains fewer gold ounces but at significantly higher average gold grades,” he said.

"Further, the main zones of gold mineralization included in the updated mineral resource estimate remain open, with numerous historical gold intersections defining drill-ready targets highlighting the potential for resource growth and new discoveries."

Equinox said the new estimate and geological model is based on a re-examination of core drilled by a previous company. To date, Equinox said it has not conducted any drilling on the property.

The company has identified three zones which will be the centre of attention in future follow-up exploration. All three zones look to be extensions of the former Hasaga and Howie mines. Old drill core pulled from outside Equinox’s resource box returned sections that show greater than one gram per tonne on every hole, including some with economic potential.

For 2025, Equinox said it plans to continue examining drill core looking for gold-bearing sections, while geologically mapping the property and conducting a limited drill program in and around where the resource has been identified.