The primary distribution of values in the mineralized zones of the Bellechasse-Timmins gold deposit is erratic within the gold-hosting quartz and the distribution of quartz withinthe fractured diorite tends to be chaotic. While on the large scale quartz bearing zonesare quite remarkably continuous both on strike and to depth, within these zones, particularly at the size of sample that can be recovered by diamond drilling (~5kg/m for NQ diameter cores) the percentage of quartz often varies centimetre by centimetre.

Since the gold seems to be present only in quartz veining and to be erratically distributed in the quartz, correlation of intersections on the basis of apparent gold concentration is often problematic.

This feature of the Bellechasse-Timmins mineralization is illustrated by a series of crosssections that suggest a tendency for drilling results to give grade estimators lower than obtained from larger (e.g. bulk) samples.

There seems to be a general tendency for grade estimator results from down hole hammer samples (~50kg/m) to be less than obtained from treating samples of several tonnes, but to suggest higher grade estimators than do the diamond drill samples (½ NQ drill cores give ~2.5kg/metre).

There does appear to be an increase in background values in those locations where 'good' gold values can be expected. Rarely do gold values over 1g/tonne occur in the absence of an 'envelope' or 'background' of ~50 to 150+ ppb Au.

The general conclusion is that drilling provides samples that are inadequate for developing robust grade estimators, and that assaying of drill core and down-hole hammer samples probably gives a database that underestimates the actual gold concentration in the material sampled. Our data support this proposition but more work will be required before any 'adjustment factor' for diamond drilling or down-hole hammer sampling results can be considered.