Stelmine Canada Ltd reports the launch of the Phase 1 diamond drilling program ranging to 3000 meters at its wholly-owned Courcy Property along the eastern regions of the gold-rich Opinaca basin, located west of Fermont in Northern Quebec.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/ Bjoern Wylezich
The first holes are set to follow up on the historic discovery of a 42-m core interval grading 4.2 g/t Au in Zone 1, including 105 g/t Au over 1.5 m and possessing visible gold in the core, which starts only 12 m downhole, in the last drill hole completed at the property.
Gold mineralization at Courcy is related to a 21-km-long fault zone uncovered by Stelmine geologists, which presented the exceptional level of capabilities of this unexplored 178 km2 property.
Initial assay outcomes from Mercator located roughly 100 km to the northwest of Courcy have started to flow in from an extensive surface sampling assignment, carried out during the summer. Notably, channel sampling in the southwest part of the 2.5-km-long Main Zone, located 80 m below the top of a mineralized hill, has unraveled a 27.5-m interval grading 2.15 g/t Au. There are more assay results to be processed.
After careful preparation, our team is excited at the prospect of quickly expanding the Courcy discovery. It has high impact potential given the shallowness of the mineralization, the grades and widths encountered in limited historical drilling, and the 21-km-long fault zone that we know is associated with gold.
Ms Isabelle Proulx, President and CEO, Stelmine Canada Ltd
Ms Proulx continued, “The initial Mercator results are extremely encouraging. This system appears to continue for many kilometers beyond the Main Zone based on geophysics and our recent sampling. Combined with Courcy, this supports our thesis that the eastern part of the Opinaca basin holds multi-deposit potential just like the western part at James Bay Territory (Eleonore mine, La Grande Sud, La Pointe).”
Mercator — 27.5-m Channel Sample Grades 2.15 g/t Au
The highly consistent gold mineralization in the 27.5-m channel sample (R21025 and R21026) was accompanied by components like arsenopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite and garnet. The sample holds an estimated true width of 15 to 20 m. Significantly, this sample was collected at the foothill of the main zone crest and increases the chances of holding successive thick gold-bearing iron formation layers that dip 30° to 40° to the northwest.
There is a correlation between the gold in the main zone and faulted and folded iron formation revealing strong positive magnetic anomalies within a thrust metasediment and amphibolite assemblage.
During summer 2021, 366 rock samples were collected from the 389 km2 Mercator Property. The collection includes 249 samples from the main zone distributed among 36 channels summing up to 315 linear meters. Meanwhile, 117 grab rock samples revealing mineralization and covering the rest of the property completed the project.
Stelmine Canada Ltd is awaiting to present more reports from the Mercator soon.