MacDonald Mines up 31% on SPJ drilling news

MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. [BMK-TSXV] shares rallied sharply in heavy trading Thursday after the company released impressive drilling results from its Scadding Powerline Jovan (SPJ) property near Sudbury, Ontario where the company has previously intersected high-grade gold.

The latest results are from a 2020 definition drilling program in the North Pit area, where hole SM-20-026 intersected 59.2 g/t gold over 19.07 metres in the Bristol Structure, 18 metres north-east of hole SM-19-001, which intersected 52 g/t gold over 12 metres.

“The on-going 2020 drilling program is well underway with nine holes drilled so far,” the company said. “Results will be released as they are received.”

MacDonald shares advanced on the news, rising 31.2% or $0.025 to 10.5 cents on volume of 9.75 million. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $0.03 and 21 cents.

Based in Toronto, MacDonald is focused on precious metals exploration, primarily in Ontario. The company has a 100% interest in the SPJ property, which covers 10,000 hectares, and is located in a polymetallic gold district about 33 kilometres southeast of Sudbury.

The historic Scadding Mine, located on the SPJ property, produced 144,000 tonnes of ore at a grade of 7.43 g/t gold. The Norstar Mine, located within 500 metres of the Jovan Property, produced 63,000 tonnes of ore at a grade of 7.2 g/t gold.

“Based on the positive results to date, MacDonald’s objective is to continue to expand the footprint and the extent of the high-grade gold mineralization around the Scadding Mine deposit and further explore regional targets, well beyond the mine area, where current and historic prospecting exhibit significant gold, copper, cobalt, and nickel showings that may be indicative of a much larger gold-rich iron-oxide-copper-gold system at work in the region,” said MacDonald President and CEO Quentin Yarie in a November 19 news release.

The structures targeted [by a 2019 Fall drilling program] include those associated with gold mineralization in the North, South, and E-W pits of the Scadding Mine, the Scadding Underground mine, the Villeneuve discovery, the historic New Zone located between the Scadding Mine and the E-W Pit, and a historic pit located between the New Zone and E-W Pit. Evidence of chlorite alteration associated with gold mineralization was observed in all the completed drill holes, the company said in Monday’s press release.

“The first hole of our 2020 program confirms the presence of significant high-grade gold mineralization in the North Pit area of the Scadding Deposit,” Yarie said in a news release, Thursday. “Holes SM-19-001 and SM-20-026 indicate continuity for a zone of exceptionally high-grade gold mineralization in the North Pit area,” he said. “This reinforces the potential for a near-surface high-grade gold resource in the North Pit area as our on-going 2020 drilling program continues to expand the footprint of gold mineralization.”

“Our 2019 drilling program shows that significant zones of near-surface, high grade gold mineralization are present beyond the original footprint of the historic operations of the Scadding Deposit,” Yarie said.

“Having successfully completed the first phase of our diamond drilling program at Scadding, we will now finalize the logging of all remaining drill holes, update our geological model of the deposit and define the next targets for the budgeted early 2020 diamond drilling program,” he said.