Pure Gold Mining drills 16 g/t gold over 7 metres at Madsen
Madsen headframe, mill, tailings facility and mine village mine village located 16 km west of Red Lake, Ontario. Source: Pure Gold Mining Inc.
Pure Gold Mining Inc. [PGM-TSXV; LRTNF-OTC] has released results from the first four drill holes targeting the McVeigh horizon located on the 100%-owned Madsen gold project in northern Ontario’s Red Lake gold district. These initial holes are part of Pure Gold’s continuing drill program designed to test and advance new interpretations of near-surface high-grade targets, in close proximity to the historic mine.
Over the past six months the company has compiled and analyzed the digitized historic geology, drilling and mining data of Madsen’s parallel Austin and McVeigh mineralized horizons. The Austin horizon was the principal source of mine feed for the Madsen mine, which was in operation for more than 30 years. During this time, well over two million ounces of gold was produced from surface to a depth of 1,200 metres, at a historic production rate of approximately 170,000 ounces of gold per 100 vertical metres. The parallel McVeigh horizon only saw limited near-surface production with a maximum mining depth of approximately 230 metres.
“These initial drilling results confirm that the McVeigh horizon hosts broad shoots of high-grade gold mineralization. Importantly, current drilling strongly suggests there is a tremendous opportunity to expand this mineralized zone. We believe that the McVeigh horizon is open at depth, and, based on our success to date, we are adding a second drill rig and expanding our phase 1 drill program,” said Darin Labrenz, President and CEO of Pure Gold.
Assay results from the first four drill holes testing Central McVeigh have been received. Highlights include 11.5 g/t gold over 11.2 metres in the Austin Zone, including 16.7 g/t over 7.2 metres; and 11.3 g/t gold over 9.3 metres in the McVeigh Zone, including 16.3 g/t over 6.0 metres as well as 16.0 g/t gold over 7.0 metres with higher grade intervals, also in the McVeigh Zone. Drilled widths are interpreted to vary between 75% and 100% of true widths.
Since January, approximately 3,000 metres of diamond drilling has been completed in 10 drill holes at Madsen. This initial drilling is designed to test the continuity of steeply plunging mineralized shoots within the McVeigh horizon to a maximum depth of approximately 300 metres below surface. Geologically, the mineralized shoots of the McVeigh horizon share the same characteristics, and similar widths and grades as the parallel Austin horizon, and the company believes there is significant potential to expand the mineralization at McVeigh. Given this, the company intends to increase and accelerate the current drill program with the addition of a second drill rig and an additional 10,000 metres of drilling for a total of 16,000 metres (see press release dated Jan. 25, 2016). A limited portion of this expanded drilling program will be allocated toward near-surface expansion of the high-grade Russet South discoveries, located 1.5 kilometres from the Madsen mine headframe.
The historic Madsen Mine operated for over 36 years with historic production of 2.5 million ounces grading 9.9 g/t gold. The Madsen gold project hosts an operational headframe, a permitted mill and tailings facility, and access to power, water and labour. The Madsen gold project has an indicated resource of 928,000 ounces gold at 8.93 g/t gold (in 3.24 million tonnes) and an inferred resource of 297,000 ounces gold at 11.74 g/t gold (in 790,000 tonnes) (see the NI 43-101 technical report entitled Technical Report for the Madsen Gold Project Red Lake, Ontario, Canada, prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. dated effective Feb. 18, 2014; mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability).     The mineral resource is based on 13,624 drill holes, the majority being underground holes evenly dispersed throughout the mineral resource, and a robust geologic model based on 27 levels of geological mapping and sampling.
In addition to the mineral resource, the Madsen gold project hosts a number of highly prospective new discoveries, including the Fork zone and Russet South targets, where drilling in 2015 returned 15.0 g/t gold over 5 metres from hole PG15-028 and 39.1 g/t gold over 2.9 metres from hole PG15-031 (see news releases dated March 2, 2015, and March 16, 2015). Pure Gold believes the opportunity exists to advance these near-surface, high-grade exploration targets through the application of modern exploration science and a new understanding of the district.