More mineralization keeps turning up for Wesdome Gold Mines during its expansion of the Eagle River Mine in northeastern Ontario.
The Wawa-area gold miner is extending drifts into a new area of mineralization, known as the 7 Zone, and exploration drilling underground is showing this zone has some legs the deeper they go.
Development work in the 7 Zone over the past two years shows that the strike length of gold mineralization keeps increasing, to 146 metres at last count. The grade is 30.5 grams per tonne (g/t) over an average true thickness of 2.61 metres.
The company said ongoing exploration drilling confirms that this longer strike length extends down to the 1,250-metre level and is open at depth.
The No.7 Zone has 97,000 ounces of contained gold at a grade of 13.2 g/t.
In a Dec. 6 news release, Wesdome said this extension could mean a “substantial additional of potential resources.”
This area will be targeted for more exploration heading into 2019 as they add a fourth drill underground.
During the 30-plus years of production at the Eagle River Complex, the bulk of the 1,050,000 ounces of gold production has come from its 6 and 8 Zones.
But the recent discovery of two new parallel zones at the western part of the mine – the 300 and 7 Zones – has heightened confidence of more production in the years to come.
“The 7 Zone will be an important aspect of the Eagle River production over the coming years,” said Wesdome president-CEO Duncan Middlemiss in a statement.
“The results confirm the ongoing success the mine has had with our exploration program of the parallel zones and we remain committed to aggressive exploration. The current program is utilizing four underground drills and two surface drills and in order to identify additional resources and workplaces for increased future production profiles.”
