The following story was published in the Times Star, a community weekly based in Geraldton, Ontario,
on October 1, 2008:
SAGE GOLD HOLDS INVESTORS TOUR
Sage Active in Greenstone Region
by Edgar J. Lavoie
Part I – The Golden Extension
The forest industry does help mining exploration. Sage Gold Inc. has found what it believes will
become a major gold discovery in the middle of a clearcut.
When Sage's prospectors made the discovery, they did not have to fight their way through
swamps and bush – at least in that location. And they found a logging road in place.
On September 22 and 23, the writer
joined a field tour of some of Sage's
properties in the Beardmore-Geraldton
mining camp. The party included Sage
officials, a group of investors from Bay
Street, and two geologists from the
Ministry of Northern Development and
Mines (MNDM). The four investors –
perhaps mining investment advisors is a
more accurate term – had flown into
Thunder Bay Airport that morning, and a
chartered bus had whisked them to a tourist
resort on the 801 Road between Beardmore
and Jellicoe.
The first day began with a lunch in
the dining hall of Pasha Lake Cabins and a
presentation by two of Sage's top
executives: Nigel Lees, President and CEO;
and Bill Love, Vice President/Business
Development.
The field party jumped into 4-WD
pickups, two of them driven by local
prospectors, Myron Nelson and Lyle Holt,
whom Lees also described as "partners" in
Sage because they have vested interests.
Ted Cox demonstrates with a miner's
pan how to extract gold from the muck.
One truck scooted over to nearby Bush Lake Resort, where Sage locates its field office, so that a
small group could catch a helicopter ride to the Hercules Property of Kodiak Exploration Ltd. Four
trucks headed north on the 801, cut across to the Kinghorn Road by the River Road, and entered the
Kodiak property.
The trail into the Golden Mile Zone had been improved since last year, and a rough extension
had been built to the north end of the area stripped of overburden, running on the west side. After a long
wait, two helicopters touched down in the clearing. Out of the Kodiak-sponsored chopper stepped one
investor and four Kodiak officials. The Kodiak team planned to shuttle parties of investors all week to
its star property.
Squatting in the "jewelry box" of Kodiak's Golden Mile, Brian Maher (VP) addresses
the field parties. Sage's President, Nigel Lees, looks on (upper left). Unpublished photo.
As pre-arranged, the Kodiak team, led by Bill Chornaby, President and CEO, and Brian Maher,
Vice President/Exploration, was going to make a presentation to the Sage/Kodiak parties. Everyone
migrated toward the "jewelry box" of the Golden Mile and descended into the shallow trench. A little
way to the south a North Star Drilling rig groaned away.
It was a day that held a lot of promise, in more ways than one. On this warm autumn day, the
sunlight bathed the wide quartz vein that snakes through a shear zone in the host rock, the Elmhirst Lake
Intrusion. Brian Maher got down to business, spreading generously sized charts on the gold-bearing
vein and speaking to the graphics contained therein.
Since late summer of 2006, Kodiak had been making spectacular gold discoveries on its
Hercules Property. The Golden Mile Zone had been stripped almost continuously for about 3
kilometres, trending northwest. This season diamond drills had been sinking deep holes in a continuing
effort to define an ore body, a substantial mineral resource that would justify a mine.
In the first two seasons, Kodiak stripped a parallel line of zones to the east, running from the
Wilkinson Lake Zone in the southeast to the Marino Zone in the northwest, This season it has been
stripping and drilling a parallel zone to the west. This past summer, said Chornaby (President), Kodiak
had 135 people employed in the field.
Maher (VP) stated that Kodiak was sending about a thousand core samples a day to the lab for
"fire assay". Any result yielding 3 grams per metric tonne (g/t) or better had been sent back for a more
rigorous "metallic assay". Drills had intersected values as deep as 575 metres. Major mining
companies have expressed interest, but, Maher said, negotiations were confidential. Holding up his
hands, Maher remarked: "We have almost two handfuls [of documents] signed."
In the course of the presentation, Chornaby said, "Our neighbours [Sage Gold] are on strike with
a significant discovery." He was referring to the Golden Extension Showing about 5 kilometres across
country.
Later, Gerry White, district geologist for MNDM, communicated to the writer: "If Sage's
Golden Extension occurrence proves to be the northwestern extension of Kodiak's Hercules vein system,
a much large exploration target emerges from this area."
After this splendid example of cross-promotion by the two junior companies, the two parties
dispersed. Most of the Sage field party embarked in the four pickups. The writer and two others
climbed into the Sage-sponsored Bell 206 Long Ranger and flew northwest along the strike of the
Golden Mile.
To the west, one could observe the newest Kodiak zone, the Lucky Strike, also trending
northwest. Ahead, just north of the unnamed lake that terminates the trenching on the Golden Mile,
drills were churning away in the bush, accessed by a rough trail that permits only ATV travel. Farther
ahead, a clearcut area emerged.
Up to a week ago, the Sage crew had been stripping the vein by hand. With a bridge newly
installed over Fairview Creek, operations were continuing with a backhoe. As the helicopter landed,
other members of the field party were making their way by road. A logging road runs west for almost
11 kilometres to the showing, starting just past the Kilometre 43 marker on the Kinghorn Road.
The backhoe operator, Nolan Cox, greeted the visitors, along with son Ted Cox, Sage's field
geotechnician, and son Danny Cox, contracted by Sage to provide a crew of geotechs.
Trenching had exposed a broad quartz vein in a shear of the host rock, the Elmhirst Lake
Intrusion. Bill Love (Sage VP) explained, "The strike of this is very close to that of [Kodiak's] Golden
Mile."
The Golden Extension Showing occurs about 1.6 kilometres from the boundary with Kodiak.
The vein has been traced over a length of 200 metres, most of it in the last week. Ted Cox described the
gold-bearing vein as a tight pinch and swell structure, the widest point being 1.3 metres, with a vertical
dip. Gazing to the southeast, Cox said, "We can hear Kodiak's drills every day."
Cox wowed the visitors with a demonstration of panning. Scooping some soil and dipping the
pan into water, he gently rocked and swirled the contents until a glistening tail of gold appeared. Said
one of the investors, "It's amazing! That gold just came out of the muck [near the vein]." Donna
McPherson, a stock broker, represented Octagon Capital Corporation, based in Toronto.
Aerial view of Sage's Golden Extension. The line of strike (right to left) points to Kodiak's Golden
Mile Zone about 5 kilometres away. Unpublished photo courtesy of Gerry White, MNDM.
Walking with some visitors northeast of the main trench, geotechnician Cox gestured towards a
new water-filled trench. He explained that in developing a "waterhole" to supply the hose that washes
down the bedrock, the excavator exposed the vein extension with startling samples of visible gold (VG).
The strategic plan of operations, said Cox, includes some cross-trenching to determine if the showing
has some parallel zones alongside.
The Cox family has a financial stake in the Jacobus Property, which is an extensive area
northwest of Kodiak's Hercules Property. The Golden Extension is located in the Jacobus East Area.
Danny Cox, a prospector and an exploration contractor, remarked that their financial interest gave them
an extra incentive to do their jobs well.
Back at the main trench, the rest of the field party, along with Nigel Lees (President), arrived in
three trucks. One truck had foundered in a muddy section of trail near the Kodiak drill rig, and the
drilling crew had helped extricate the vehicle. Another problem had developed, and they had abandoned
the truck temporarily.
Throughout the tour, Mark Smyk, regional resident geologist for MNDM, and Gerry White had
been asking questions, making observations, and recording meticulous notes.
Earlier in the season, a Sage crew had stripped the showing for 12 metres and extracted samples
from 12 channels, spaced a metre apart. Bill Love explained that the exposed vein at that time averaged
19.5 g/t, with up to 9 g/t found in the wall or host rock. Ted Cox stated that another 34 samples have
been sent for assay, and that they were preparing more to go.
Last winter Sage Gold had run geophysics on the Jacobus East Area, and when the snow had
gone, Nolan Cox had been stripping a "line feature" farther west without getting any values. Then in
July a prospecting team found a patch of bedrock, about 2 by 3 metres in size, which is now called the
Golden Extension Showing.
One of the investors, J.C. St-Amour of Frazer Mackenzie, told the writer that he had been
impressed by the earlier presentation. That the Sage find was on line of strike with Kodiak's Golden
Mile looked very promising. As for the Golden Extension, he said, "This is still early [in the operations
stage], and it will be good to see some drill results."
Another interesting feature of the showing was that someone had used a spray can to print on top
of the dome in the trench the following words: GOLDEN SPIDER. Nolan Cox displayed a photo of a
yellow spider whose home they had disturbed. Until the showing received its official name, the crew
had apparently been using the term as a workplace title.
Back at Pasha Lake Cabins, the party relaxed with beverages in hand as they hovered over
display boxes of split core and a table loaded with interesting samples from other Sage properties in the
Jellicoe area. The day ended with a lavish meal catered by Karen Ostler of Geraldton.
The following day, Tuesday, the tour would move to Sage's Onaman Property.