Kirkland Lake gold explorer out to 'control its destiny’

It’ll be a summer of prospecting for Orefinders Resources at its Kirkland Lake-area gold property.

In an April 11 news release, the Toronto junior miner said it will be targeting a few spots on its 681-hectare McGarry property, near Virginiatown, to better understand the geological structure.

The company has some prime property, stretching more than two kilometres along the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break, one of the world’s most prolific gold producing belts. Orefinders picked up the property last August.

The mothballed Armistice Mine sits on the property, which suspended operations in 2013.

An historical indicated resource remains in the ground, estimated at 123,000 ounces of gold at 8.6 grams per tonne (g/t) remains in the ground, along with an inferred resource of 30,000 ounces at 5.8 g/t.

The company said their property has similar geological structure to the Kirkland Lake Gold’s Macassa Mine, just to the west.

At McGarry, they’ve discovered secondary splay faults branching off the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break. The company said it's the same structure that’s known to host gold at Kirkland Lake Gold’s South Mine Complex.

Orefinders believe these relatively unexplored splay faults have “excellent potential” to find gold near the surface.

The plan is to do mapping and exploration in this area – known as the Arjon Zone – to get a better understanding of the geology.

Also on the property is the Barber-Larder Zone, which operated as a small open-pit mine for two years in the late 1980s. About 77,000 tonnes of material was pulled out, yielding an average grade of 4.1 grams per tonne.

The company claims only the top of the deposit was mined and a “significant amount of mineralized material remains.” Some shallow drilling is planned between this zone and the western boundary of the property.

Orefinders doesn’t plan on spending a huge chunk of change on exploration this year. Simply put, it’s too tough to raise financing these days.

After receiving their drilling permits earlier this year, the company said they’re prepared to wait for the markets to loosen up or for a major miner to come calling.

The company has been prospecting and collecting data on its Mirado, McGarry and Knight projects, spread out between Shining Tree and Kirkland Lake.

“Developing gold resources geographically around the McGarry property is part of our core strategy,” said company CEO Stephen Stewart in a statement.

“I’ll note that Mirado is only 15 kilometres away and that McGarry hosts an existing large tailings facility along with the infrastructure required to build a mill facility. Our goal is to increase resources that exist within a tight radius of this hub. We’ve completed some toll milling and evaluated new contracts but ultimately Orefinders wants to control its own destiny. We have acquired a number of the key elements and this plan is designed to grow our own critical mass to justify our own operations.”