Northern Gold Mining Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NGM) has announced that a second diamond drill began drilling operations at the Garrcon Gold Deposit on October 25th.
The Garrcon Deposit is an advanced stage exploration gold deposit situated on the Garrison Gold Property which is located on the Destor-Porcupine and Munro Faults, adjacent to, and immediately south of Highway 101 about 15 kilometers west of St Andrew Goldfield's Holt-McDermott and Harker Holloway mines and 30 kilometers east of Brigus Gold's Black Fox mine.
"The ongoing 2010 drill campaign has successfully identified extensions to known mineralization throughout the Garrcon Deposit. With the addition of a second drill, we will define additional mineralization more quickly, adding additional gold ounces to the current resources," said Martin Shefsky, President and CEO of Northern Gold Mining Inc. "Northern Gold will continue to aggressively drill the Garrcon property and release drill results on an ongoing basis.
As at October 31st, 7,033 meters of drilling has been completed in 30 drill holes in the ongoing 10,000 meter infill diamond drill program originally contemplated for 2010. Two more diamond drill holes were in progress at the end of October. Assay results for eight of the drill holes have been released (Please see press releases dated September 28, September 2, and August 4) and assays are pending for the rest. The second drill effectively doubles drilling capacity, thus increasing the rate at which the Company can define additional tonnes and resource ounces as well as increasing the quality of the ounces within the previously disclosed Garrcon resource footprint.
The 2010 drill results continue to confirm results from previous drilling and continue to expand the extent of known mineralization within the Garrcon resource footprint. Of particular importance is the confirmation that previous gold mineralized drill intercepts of 100 to 150 and even 200 m consistently assayed from 0.25 g/t to 1.5 g/t. Examination of the newly stripped and washed outcrops confirmed the geologic model of stockwork mineralization as seen in drill core. The mineralized footprint of the Garrcon Deposit as seen in drilling to date is at least 760 meters long, 300 meters wide and open to depth.
In light of this exploration success, Northern is increasing the ongoing 2010 drill program to 30,000 meters as recommended by A.C.A Howe International Ltd. in the Garrcon Technical Report filed on SEDAR November 5, 2010. Concurrently, Northern commenced re-logging, re-sampling and check assaying of holes drilled by previous operators, including previously un-sampled core to investigate the possibilities of finding new areas of mineralization that fit the present low grade, bulk tonnage model.
Northern is focusing its drilling in the top 200 to 250 vertical meters of the deposit to enable faster, more cost effective development and definition of the shallow ounces. Deeper drilling will follow at a later time to investigate gold mineralization with bulk mineable widths and grades reported in drill holes by previous operators down to depths off 500 meters vertically.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Northern Gold Mining Inc. has implemented a QA/QC protocol for its exploration work. Northern is currently diamond drilling the Garrison Gold Property and the drilling contractor is Major Drilling Group International Inc. Core size is NQ, to give good sample sizes and enabling the possibility for at least two step-downs if ground conditions should require it. Core is delivered to the secure Core Shack facility by the driller or picked up by one of Northern Gold's designated personnel and transported to the Core Shack facility. In addition to recovery and RQD (Rock Quality Designation) data geologic parameters including lithology, alteration, quartz veining, presence and identification of sulfide mineralization along with other geologic parameters are noted and recorded. Core is marked in one meter intervals for splitting, sampling and assaying, unless geologic data indicate a shorter sample interval. Prior to splitting, all core is photographed. Core splitting is done with a diamond core saw and ½ of the drill core is submitted to Expert Laboratories, an accredited laboratory (PTP-MAL – Accredited by Standards Council of Canada – In Accordance with ISO/IEC 43-1) in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec for assaying. The remainder of the core is stored at the Garrison Gold Property. All sample intervals where visible gold is observed to be present are automatically submitted for analysis using the metallic screen procedure where the entire half core is crushed, pulped and screened at 100 mesh. The screen oversize is assayed in total and the screen undersize is fire assayed in triplicate using a gravimetric finish. All other samples are analyzed by conventional fire assay using a 30 gram sample with geochemical finish. All samples that assay greater than one gram are re-assayed with conventional fire assay using a gravimetric finish. Conventional fire assay sample prep consists of crushing to 90% passing 10 mesh from which a 300 gram sample is split and pulped to 90% passing 200 mesh and from which a 30 gram sample is taken for fire assaying. Following completion of fire assaying at Expert Laboratories, pulp samples are forwarded by Expert to SGS Laboratories, a certified laboratory (ISO 17025), in Toronto, Ontario for CN solubility assaying and for multi-element analyses of select samples. CN solubility test uses a 1% CN solution added to 30 grams of sample and shaken for an hour prior to settling and decanting for geochemical analysis. Multi-element analysis is conducted using 4-acid digestion followed by ICP analysis with OES finish (Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy). Northern inserts a mixture of gold standard samples, blank samples and duplicate samples into the sample stream at a rate approximating 10% of total original samples. Samples are normally transported in a Company truck from the Property to Expert Labs in Rouyn-Noranda. Chain of Custody protocols require the signing and maintenance of logs and receipts each time the samples are picked up from or delivered to a new location. When utilizing commercial transportation, all shipping sacks are sealed with a numbered tag, the removal of which is recorded upon receipt by Expert Laboratories. Check analyses are conducted on a regular basis utilizing either SGS Laboratories, a certified laboratory, in Toronto, Ontario or Swastika Laboratories, a certified laboratory (PTP-MAL – Accredited by Standards Council of Canada – In Accordance with ISO/IEC 43-1) in Swastika, Ontario.
The technical aspects of this press release has been reviewed by Michael Gross M.S., P.Geol., Vice President Exploration for Northern Gold, who is the "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 for this project.
Source: Northern Gold Mining Inc.