Great Atlantic begins Keymet exploration program, New Brunswick
Great Atlantic Resources Corp. [GR-TSXV] has begun the 2022 exploration program at its 100%-owned Keymet Precious Metal – Base Metal Property, located in northeast New Brunswick. The program is being conducted within and surrounding a zone of gold soil anomalies identified during 2021. The anomalous zone covers an area of approximately 850 by 500 metres, being open in all directions. Approximately 66% of the 2021 soil samples within the zone returned anomalous gold values of 0.005 – 0.067 parts per million (ppm). Prospecting and rock – soil geochemical sampling is currently being conducted.
The current program is being conducted within the central region of the Keymet property within and surrounding the zone of gold soil geochemical anomalies. Soil geochemical sampling is being conducted to further define gold anomalies and determine the extent of the gold anomalies.
Prospecting and rock geochemical sampling are also being conducted to identify potential sources of the gold soil anomalies and further define trench and drill targets. This region of the property is relatively underexplored. Company management believe this area has potential to host gold deposits given its location along the reported northeast-southwest contact between Ordovician – Early Silurian Fournier Group rocks and Silurian Chaleurs Group rocks. Gold deposits occur approximately 4.5-5 km southwest of this survey area and west of the company’s Keymet property close to this geological contact.
The 2021 soil geochemical sampling in the central region of the Keymet Property was conducted along four northwest-southeast traverses within an area of approximately 850 metres long by approximately 600 metres wide with a total of 91 samples collected. Highlights include 60 of the 91 soil samples returned anomalous gold values of 0.005 ppm and higher. One or more samples from each of the four traverses exceeded 0.010 ppm gold with 12 samples returning 0.011 – 0.067 ppm gold. Five of seven 7 consecutive samples along an approximately 150-metre section of one traverse returned gold values of 0.014 – 0.067 ppm gold. This anomalous zone is open in all directions.
Three gold deposits with reported mineral resources are reported west of the Keymet Project, referred to as the West Gabbro Zone (WGZ), Discovery Zone (DZ) and South Gold Zone (SGZ). These deposits are reported within 2 km of the Keymet property southwest boundary. Micon International Limited reported NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources for the WGZ, SGZ and DZ in the Technical Report on the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Elmtree gold property.
The reported resources include WGZ Indicated Resources of 1,611,000 tonnes at 1.91 g/t gold; WGZ Inferred Resources of 2,053,000 tonnes at 1.67 g/t gold; SGZ Inferred Resources of 2,367,000 tonnes @ 0.74 g/t gold and DZ Inferred Resources of 741,000 tonnes at 1.18 g/t gold
As reported by Micon International Limited, the resources were estimated using a three-dimensional block modelling approach. For each mineralized zone, wireframe models were built up from intersected geologic limits. Grade interpolation for the WGZ was conducted using the inverse distance cubed technique while interpolations for the DZ and SGZ were conducted using the nearest neighbour technique due to limited drill hole information. The cut-off grade used was 0.5 g/t gold. Great Atlantic has no interest in these three deposits. Readers are warned that mineralization at the West Gabbro Zone, South Gold Zone and Discovery Zone is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Keymet property.
The Keymet property is host to the historic Keymet Mine which operated during the mid-1950s, producing lead, zinc, copper and silver. Production at this mine was terminated in 1956 due to a fire at the site. The historic Keymet Mine is located within the northwest region of the property. Much of the previous work by Great Atlantic has been focused on the area northwest of the historic Keymet Mine. The company has located gold-bearing float and gold bearing bedrock and polymetallic veins containing high grade zinc, copper and silver this this region.
Access to the Keymet property is excellent with paved roads transecting the property, including a provincial highway. The property covers an area of approximately 3,400 hectares.