MacDonald samples up to 45.5 g/t gold, 0.39% copper at SPJ, Ontario
MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. [BMK-TSXV; MCDMF-OTC] reported new surface exploration results from the McLeod showing at its SPJ property located 40 km east of Sudbury.
Highlights of the surface exploration results at the McLeod showing included gold grades were between 0.01 g/t and 45.5 g/t and copper grades were between 0.023% and 0.39% in grab samples collected by MacDonald Mines. The surface sampling by MacDonald, combined with the historic drilling results reported for the showing (up to 35.87 g/t gold over 2.44 metres), suggests that high-grade gold zones may exist in the East-West Ess Creek deformation corridor.
MacDonald Mines secured the mineral rights over the McLeod showing through a strategic land transaction reported on March 24, 2021. Additional exploration will be conducted to define the grade, geometry and size of mineralization zones at the McLeod showing.
With the objective of validating gold grades reported by historic diamond drilling at the McLeod showing, MacDonald Mines conducted a surface sampling program at the showing in the fall of 2021. Combined with the drill logs of the 1974 program, MacDonald’s fieldwork indicates that gold-copper mineralization is associated with networks of pyrite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite veins that are variably crosscutting albitized rocks of the Southern province. Representative grab samples of different intensities of mineralization were collected in bedrock along the edge of the pit and from waste piles located beside the pit. The results of the 2021 sampling program support the presence of gold-copper mineralization at the McLeod showing.
At a larger scale on the SPJ property, the McLeod showing is deemed part of the Ess Creek deformation corridor in which MacDonald Mines’ drilling program in the winter of 2021 identified multiple zones of anomalous gold, nickel and silver mineralization. The confirmation of gold-copper mineralization at the McLeod showing extends the footprint of the mineralized system identified in 2021 along the Ess Creek deformation corridor over a strike length of 530 metres.
The company is focused on developing its 100%-owned SPJ project in northern Ontario. Following up on its successful 2019/2021 exploration and drilling campaigns, MacDonald Mines is focused on what it theorizes to be a large gold system at work on the 19,380-hectare property with high-grade gold surrounding the formerly producing Scadding gold mine and surrounding gold/polymetallic mineralization over several kilometres.