LME ~ HAS ANYBODY HEARD ABOUT A DRILLING UPDATE?
posted on
Dec 08, 2007 09:45AM
Reading their site, they acquired that entire old Sturgeon River mine and a bunch of dirt around it, right in the heart of Beardmore-Geraldton playing field and on same trend with kodiak's land.
(Sturgeon River Mine project description follows FROM laurion site)
Potential of the Sturgeon River Mine
Laurion recognizes the huge potential of the Sturgeon River Mine Property. The large numbers of gold-bearing quartz veins on the property are completely untested by diamond drilling and suggest considerable exploration potential on the Beardmore Property. These gold–bearing quartz veins are a part of a complex series of secondary growth faults (KW Fault) splay from the Paint Lake Fault for at least 30 km.
The east-trending Paint Lake Fault to the south marks the structural linear contact between the Eastern Wabigoon Subprovince to the north and the Quetico Subprovince to the south for at least 50 km. The KW Fault is a complex series of faults and shears that trend for 8 km in a northeasterly to northerly direction on the Kodiak Hercules Property.
The WL Gold Zone, located on the Hercules Property, and to the southwest, the Brookbank Deposit (3,247,000 tons @ 0.19 opt Au) and the Quebec Sturgeon River Mine (145,123 tons @ 0.51 opt Au), are associated with the KW Fault. Mackasey et al (1978) described a portion of the KW Fault as a broad area, some 500 meter wide, containing zones of sheared metavolcanic rocks with numerous parallel quartz veins.
Sturgeon River Mine is reported to host more than 120 other veins and mineralized zones, many of which indicate significant gold mineralization.
The Sturgeon River Mine also has the potential to host zinc-copper VMS-type mineralization in rhyolitic volcanics. Grab and chip samples taken in the vicinity of the Agaura Block located within the Sturgeon River Mine, returned values ranging from 2% to 17% Zn, 0.05 to 0.65% Cu, 0.05 to 0.75 oz/ton Ag, and trace to 0.06 oz/ton Au. (M.L.Halladay). The association of precious metals (Au, Ag), base metals (Zn,Pb,Cu), and their volcanic equivalents strongly suggest a porphyry environment.
Most of the production from the Sturgeon River Gold Mine came from the No.3 Vein which can be traced for the entire 2,100 ft vertical range of the mine, and for a strike of 1,700 ft on the 750 level. The Sturgeon River Mine was not mined below the 1,750 level. Lesser veins included the No. 10 and M Veins, as well as the No. 11 vein, were discovered on the 2,080 level just prior to mine closure. All veins contained free gold. One diagnostic feature of gold-bearing veins is the presence of clear and colourless secondary or late stage quartz stringers within the major veins.
Exploration History
Gold was first discovered in the Beardmore area in 1925, The Beardmore-Geraldton gold camp produced 4.12 million ounces of gold over a period of about 50 years. Previous work on the Beardmore Property between 1935 and 1973 identified more than 60 gold-bearing zones which were stripped or trenched and sampled. Until the late 1980's, only seven of these had been diamond drilled, although even this exploration was somewhat superficial. Seeber (1983) reports that one section of the property was tested with 28 holes drilled to an average vertical depth of less than 75ft.
The Sturgeon River Mine consists of thirty-five (35) patented mineral claims located in the historic Geraldton-Beardmore Gold Camp, 120 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The ore was hand sorted on surface to up-grade the mill feed, and the recovered grade was an impressive 0.506 oz Au/ton. Seeber reports that the maximum mill throughput was about 80 tons/day. The mine closed due to wartime shortages of skilled labour and vital materials.
A 1942 ore reserve estimate yielded a proven inventory of 130,680 tons grading 0.306 oz Au/ton (OM 86-43) This historical estimate is not current and does not meet CIM Definition Standards and is here for historical proposes and should not be relied upon.
Between the mine closing and 1959, little exploration was carried out in the area, and ownership of the property area changed hands. At that time, the report of a high grade nickeliferous boulder and a zinc-lead showing in a newly blasted road cut led to some renewed interest in the area. Little exploration came about until Coniagas received an infusion of cash in 1972. A new company, Jupiter Minerals Inc., was established to conduct geological, geochemical (soil) and geophysical (magnetometer and EM) surveys over the Property area. Persistent shears, weakly mineralized with sphalerite, chalcopyrite, argentiferous galena and low gold values were discovered. Drilling was recommended but none was completed.
Major surface exploration was undertaken on the Sturgeon River Mine between the years of 1984 to 1986 by Phoenix Gold Mines Limited. Of the 70 veins tested during such time, some 45 veins were new discoveries located by prospecting and mechanical stripping work. (Dr. Derek E. McBride) This work, which was concentrated in the northwestern part of the Property, comprised bedrock stripping, outcrop washing, geological mapping and channel sampling.
The Marge Vein, located about 2,000 ft north of the shaft, was extended a further 69 feet. (Marge Vein – 505 ft. length averaging 0.727 oz. Au/ton over 1.17 ft. width) and at one location on the Agaura Block (85-A2 and -A2B veins -403 ft. aggregate length averaging 0.525 oz. Au/ton over 0.61 ft. width.) The highlight of the 1986 work was the extension to nearly double the known length of significant gold mineralization at the Marge Vein (to an overall 974 ft. length averaging 0.514 oz. Au/ton over 1.19 ft. width), and the discovery of three other notable veins (F, X, Allard Veins) with some visible gold in the vicinity of the Marge Vein. The new section of the Marge Vein averaged <0.294 oz Au/on across a width of 1.22 ft. To the northeast, Koskitalo reports that the vein disappears under a swamp. In this area it carries visible gold and grades 1.75 oz Au/ton across 3.0 ft.(OM 86-43)
Placer-Dome Mines optioned the property during 1988-89, and carried out a program of mapping, sampling and diamond drilling (28 holes; 13,823 ft). The best results included five holes which graded 0.14 oz Au/ton over 3 ft to 0.54 oz Au/ton over three ft. The average grade of the five intersections was 0.333 oz Au/ton across 2.8 ft.
Placer-Dome dropped the option after concluding that the mineralization was too erratic to be of interest. No further work has been conducted since that time.
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Geology
The southern part of the property is underlain by vertical to steeply SE-dipping rhyolite. Towards the north, these NE-striking rocks are in turn underlain by rhyodacite and dacite. Contacts between the two flow types are gradational. These volcanic rocks are bounded to the north by foliated to sheared intrusives of granodiorite and quartz diorite which are locally carbonatized and contain auriferous quartz veins and stringers, and very finely disseminated pyrite. Recent exploration has shown that some gold-bearing veins occur in heavily tourmalinized intermediate (?) volcanic breccias (Koskitalo), but the intrusive rocks are the major hosts to gold-bearing veins. The Property is cut by major NE-striking ductile shear zones which are best developed in the eastern part of the claim block. Major gold-bearing quartz veins, ranging in thickness from a few centimetres to several metres, are parallel to these structures. Veins generally persist for 10's of metres of strike and commonly pinch out where the controlling shear zone narrows (Kresz and Zayachivsky, 1989). The contacts between veins and host rocks is usually quite sharp and well defined. The veins appear to be offset by NNE-trending faults, but some vein orientations appear to swing into this plane of shearing. The rocks are also cut by ESE to SE-striking faults which have an uncertain affect on the veins.